Winfred Gaul
.Biografie .Presse .Rundgang1928
Winfred Gaul is born on the 9th of July in Düsseldorf.
1949/50
Studies Art History and German Literature at the University of Cologne.
1950-1953
Studies at the Art Academy Stuttgart under his master Willi Baumeister. First time to see the Impressionists and the paintings of Claude Monet.
1954
Travels with the author J. Rüber to Neapel, Pompeji and Positano, where he stays for three months, painting.
1955
Establishes his studio in Düsseldorf.
Friendship with Peter Brüning and Manfred de la Motte.
First exhibition in April with the INFORMEL–artists in a group show at Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart.
Travels to Paris again, where he meets the French Painters Bellegarde, Benrath and Laubiès and participates in the NUAGISTES-Exhibition. Meets Yves Klein and Pierre Restany.
Travels to London to see the works of Turner.
1956
First solo exhibition in Munich with INFORMEL–works.
At the Frankfurter Frühjahrssalon he meets K.O. Götz.
Participates in the Salon Comparaisons and in Cinq Abstraits Rhénans at Galerie Paul Facchetti – both in Paris.
Creates his first POEMES VISIBLES.
Participates in the annual exhibition of the GROUP 53 at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.
1957
The group of the TACHISTEN receives great attention at the annual exhibition in Berlin. The Newspaper DIE WELT publishes an article about the exhibition with the title Blu, Blu, Blu and the victory of the Tachisten.
With five works he participates in A NEW DIRECTION IN PAINTING at the Kunsthalle Mannheim (first museum exhibition with paintings of the INFORMEL). The museum buys his painting PRACHT DER ZERSTÖRUNG – BEAUTY OF DESTRUCTION.
Solo exhibition at the Apollinaire Gallery in Milano.
Spends the summer in Bern, where he begins with his CHINESE DRAWINGS.
1958
Participates in the exhibition CONTEMPORARY GERMAN AND ITALIAN PAINTERS at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome.
Starts his series COULEUR ET VITESSE and COULEUR ET SIGNIFICATION – COLOUR AND SPEED/COLOUR AND SIGNIFICATION.
Publishes an art manifest in Stuttgart with Hajek, Platschek und Vedova.
Participates in the exhibition ART OF THE 21st CENTURY in Charleroy/Belgium during the Brussels World Exhibition. In the American Pavilion he sees works of the NEW YORK ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISTS for the first time.
1959
Starts the series of WISCHBILDER.
Sam Hunter, Director of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, visits Gaul’s studio and chooses three works for the exhibition EUROPEAN ART TODAY, which is shown in five American and Canadian Museums.
The Carnegie Institute buys a painting from the PITTSBURGH INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
Works together with the Gallery Änne Abels.
Travels with Peter Brüning and de la Motte to London, where his paintings are exhibited in the PRESENT DAY GERMAN PAINTING show of the Institute of Contemporary Art.
Participates with three works at Documenta 2 in Kassel.
1960
Participates in the exhibition ANTAGONISMES in the Musée des Arts décoratifs Paris.
1961
Lives and works in Rome for several months. Creates the series OGGETTO ROMANO and OGGETTO DI CONTEMPLAZIONE and the WHITE PAINTINGS, which are the highlights of his works in the fifties.
With the CHINESE PAINTINGS from 1957, the WISCHBLÄTTER from 1959-60 and the WHITE PAINTINGS from 1961 the period of his art representing conceptional radicalness and a reduced language in painting, concentrating on the basics, finishes.
The series OGGETTO ROMANO constitutes the movement from Gaul’s production of paintings from the fifties to the sixties. From nearly monochrome paintings he switches to bi- and polychrome paintings, from the all-over to symmetry and form. In the iconography of the VERKEHRSZEICHEN – TRAFFIC SIGNS he discovers a concrete art, integrated in the urban landscape, which leads him to a new artistic production.
In Rome he meets with Burri, Dorazio, Franchina, Novelli, Perilli, Schifano, Rotella and Twombly.
1962
On the 31st of January he opens his first solo exhibition in the Robert Elkon Gallery, New York. He stays in New York for three months, where Friedel Dzubas, an artist of the Elkon Gallery, leaves him his studio. He visits the studios of Barnett Newman, Hans Hofmann and Ad Reinhardt. He meets Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell and Kenneth Noland as well as the critic Clement Greenberg.
He returns to Europe at the end of April, where a solo exhibition in the Galleria l’Attico in Rome takes place.
The German art magazine DAS KUNSTWERK honours his work with an extended article.
At Milano’s periphery, next to the highway Milano-Monza, one of his TRAFFIC SIGNS is erected as a piece of art in Urban context.
1963
On the 23th November his solo exhibition TRAFFIC SIGNS opens in the Galerie Müller in Stuttgart.
Winfred Gaul receives the Villa-Romana-Prize for young artists.
1964
Solo exhibition TRAFFIC SIGNS in the Museum Wiesbaden
1965
Winfred Gaul teaches at the Art Academy in Bremen.
1966
Solo exhibition in the Institute of Contemporary Art in London in January. The BBC dedicates an extended TV-documentary to him.
Exhibition in the Kunsthalle Mannheim
1967
Moves to Antwerpen in Belgium. Exhibition in the Galerie Tobiès and Silex in Cologne.
1968
Participates in the exhibition KLEUR-OBJECT in Antwerpen and in the first Triennale voor plastische Kunst in Brügge.
1969
Stays in Genua. Experiments with the division of the Quadrat-Paintings.
1971
Wins the competition of the new institute of the University of Stuttgart.
Works on the series Hommage à Malewitsch, Mondrian, Matisse and Rothko.
Creates three coloured steal sculptures for the University of Heidelberg.
1972
Begins with the series MARKIERUNGEN, participates in an exhibition of the Museum Folkwang in Essen: SZENE RHEIN–RHUR.
Solo exhibition in the Galleria Peccolo in Livorno
1973/74 Solo exhibitions in the Kunstverein Münster, Museum Ludwigshafen, Bielefeld and Ulm.
1975
For the city of Bremen he compiles a representative collection of Concrete.
Solo exhibition in the Museum in Hagen
1977
Participates in Documenta 6 with two canvases of the series Color Markings.
Solo exhibition in the Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum in Bremen
1978
Exhibition of his graphic work in the Kunsthalle Kiel
1980
Exhibition in the Gallery Hennemann in Bonn, which specializes in artists of the INFORMEL.
Solo exhibition in the Galerie Karsten Greve Cologne
Participates in the exhibitions DEUTSCHES INFORMEL in the Kunstverein Oldenburg and MASTER OF THE INFORMEL in the Galerie Zimmer in Düsseldorf
1981
His series Recycling is shown in Bonn, Cologne and Düsseldorf.
1982
Solo exhibition in the Galerie Dibbert, Berlin
Exhibition in the Pinacoteca Comunale di Macerata
1987
His book PICASSO AND THE BEATLES, MEMORIES AND COMMENTS ON THE ART AFTER 1945 is published.
1994
Winfred Gaul is honoured with the LOVIS CORINTH PRIZE for his artistic career.
Exhibitions in Kaliningrad and Regensburg
1998
Exhibition WITHOUT RIGHT ANGLE in the Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal
1999
Lothar Romain publishes his monograph WINFRED GAUL – THE PAINTER. The book is dedicated to Gaul’s fifty years of painting.
2001
Solo exhibition PAINTING OF THE 50TH in the Museum in Dortmund
2002
Gives some of his works to the National Gallery Berlin and to museums in Munich, Stuttgart and Dortmund.
2003
Winfred Gaul dies on the 3rd of December.
2005
Retrospective in the Museum in Dortmund: THINKING IN PAINTINGS
Exhibition in the Galerie Elten & Elten in Zurich
2006
Exhibition in the Kunsthaus Benrath
2009
Exhibition in the Galleria Peccolo in Livorno
2010
Gaul is represented with several paintings in the exhibition LE GRAND GESTE! INFORMEL AND ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM 1946-1964 in the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf.