Siegward Sprotte
S92 "Mosaik" 1985
Oil tempera on board
11 x 15½ inches (framed 21¼ x 25¾)
At first glance Sprotte’s minimalist paintings depict landscapes and renderings of flowers, yet he contended that he was not a landscape or still-life painter. His artistic attitude was most similar to that found in the ink drawings of the Chinese and Japanese, whose intention is not to render a likeness of nature but rather to “become one” with it. He was a deeply spiritual man, inspired by the Indian mystic Krishnamurti.
S103 "Wildtulpen Potsdam Bornstedt" 1975
Lithograph, edition of 400.
25½ x 31¾ inches (framed 28½ x 34¼)
S117 "Lonely Beach" 1983
Oil on canvas
19¾ x 25 inches (25 x 30¼ framed)
S206 “January" 2000
Oil on board, signed, 24 x 24 inches (30x30 framed)
Over a lengthy and distinguished career Siegward Sprotte achieved a delicate balance between naturalism and abstraction. His singular vision of nature and a restrained, almost minimalist style have been called a bridge between Eastern and Western art.
Born in 1913 in Potsdam, Germany, Sprotte lived most of his life on the island of Sylt in the North Sea. His studio talks on art and philosophy achieved considerable fame, as younger artists came to pay homage to a living legend of European contemporary art. He was the subject of books by art critics such as Herbert Read, who further developed Sprotte’s concept that art was language, that is, a non-verbal form of communication .
S208 “Colored Calligraphy" 1997
Oil on board, 24 x 24 inches
Sprotte’s work resides in many major museum collections such as: the Mellon Collection, Washington D.C.
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh;
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art;
Berlin Museum of Art
Pushkin Museum, Moskow
Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon
Albertina Museum, Vienna.
S212 “Woge” (Wave) 1984
Gouache on paper, 26 x 20 inches
S210 “Poppies “ 1986
Gouache on paper, 20 x 28½ inches