Lothar Goetz
BiographyLothar Götz was born in Germany and studied in Aachen, Wuppertal and Düsseldorf before completing an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art, London. He has exhibited internationally and has had solo shows in London at The Economist, Chisenhale Gallery and Gasworks. Most recent projects include exhibitions at the Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, Landesgalerie Hannover, SMART, Amsterdam, National Gallery Prague and the Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven. Recent commissioned works on site include commissions for the Ministry of Justice, London, the National Arts Council Offices, London and Westminster College, London.
In 2004 Lothar was awarded the Arts's lonks Residency for Shanghai/China, in 2006 the Chocheme Fellowship at Byam Shaw/central St Martins School of Art, London and in 2010 the Abbey Fellowship at the British School at Rome.
Research Interests
Whilst Götz' practice ranges in scale from site-specific wall paintings and room-sized spatial installations to paintings and drawings, there is a clear coherence and dialogue across his body of work through its continual referencing and engagement with ideas about architecture and space and its characteristic use of abstract geometric forms, fields and lines ofintense colour, juxtaposed with one another.
His work is informed by real factors of circumstance, site, or the particular inhabitants or histories of a building, space or place, but mixes these factors with further imaginary or fantasy ones. Similarly many of his drawings represent the floor plans of idealized dwellings, sometimes for specific people or historical figures, sometimes for imagined ones. Together they form part of an ongoing series exploring spatial ideas for domestic spaces: apartments, houses, bungalows, villas.
Colour in these drawings is used to denote the functions and atmospheres of rooms, or the situations and qualities of the surrounding landscape - whether a schloss set in a meadow or a bungalow overlooking the sea. It also cues off the identity of the person who is thought to live there, in a web of imaginative factors that continually feed into the geometrical arrangement of forms and the colour decisions for each drawing.
Götz sees colour as both beautiful and a key aspect of life that surrounds us, drawing comparison with another passion of his: gardens and flowers.
Whilst Götz often references the creation of a garden or the making of a piece of architecture in his work, he sees his practice as opposite in process to that of architectural design, which concretizes ideas and designs as built form, connecting it rather to the Classical idea of art as active fantasy - something practiced as part of a personal strategy to escape from reality.
Lothar Götz is represented by rahncontemporary in Zürich, Petra Rinck Gallery in Düsseldorf and domobaal in London.
Research Activities
The mural paintings of the London-based artist Lothar Götz are defined by their relationship to the architecture. Using the existing room structure, he sees both the historical architectural associations of a building and the modern, functionally defined architectural concepts as a formal challenge.
Idiosyncratic features and architectural structures are taken up and their geo-metric principles enhanced by intensive coloration. Each of his mural works researches the complex interaction of the social and visual arrangements in the place in question. Research through Drawing forms an important foundation for Götz's murals.
Lothar Götz has been known for his public art projects in Europe for more than ten years. The locations of his site-specific works include the London Underground, Heathrow Airport, the British Ministry of Justice, schools and universities and private homes. In 2010 he was honoured with one of Britain's most prestigious awards, an Abbey Fellowship at The British School at Rome. He continues to exhibit internationally with his most recent solo show 'Don't Look Now' at the Galerie der Stadt Remscheid, the Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven and the Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg showing a comprehensive overview of works from 1989 until 2011 with a specific focus on his interdisciplinary research.