Untitled (No. 12 and 13) 1991

Gunther Forg made this ‘Untitled’ painting with a brush and some acrylic paint. I can imagine Forg in his studio, moving the brush up and down in those confident vertical strokes. You can see how he’s allowed some of the underpainting to peek through. What does that orange remind you of? For me it's like the colour of rusted metal, or the sun setting through a dusty window. On the other canvas panel, the gray is like a big, quiet mood. Then there's that orange frame around it, like a cheerful border trying to lift the gray up! Forg was good at making paintings that are both serious and playful, architectural, and gestural. He looked at painters like Rothko, but also at architecture, photography, and design. It all fed into his work. Painters are always talking to each other across time. They steal ideas, get inspired, and push things forward. That’s the great thing about painting. There is no right or wrong way of seeing the world.