Book Description
Over the past three decades, private collectors Peter and Rosemarie Ruppert have amassed an enormous range of works focused on the definition of concrete art as an aesthetic form that stands only for itself, and not for an abstracted or symbolic representation of the visually perceptible. Taken together, the works serve to illustrate the expansion and development of concrete art throughout Europe from 1945 to the present. The collection, featuring more than 240 works by 171 artists from 22 countries, includes paintings of geometric forms and pure colors by Victor Vasarely, Josef Albers, and Max Bill, early computer art by Manfred Mohr, virtual sculptures by Gerhard Mantz, and recent works of concrete photography. Essays by Dietmar Gaderian, Serge Lemoine, Hella Nocke-Schrepper and Margit Weinberg-Staber. Hardcover, 8.26 x 11 in., 428 pages, 162 color, & 93 b/w illustrations

FROM THE PUBLISHER

For over three decades, Peter C. Ruppert and his wife Rosemarie assembled a private collection of some 245 artworks which vividly document the development and spread of Concrete Art throughout Europe from 1945 to the present. The year 1945 marked the political turning point brought about by the cessation of war; with regard to art it meant different things to different nations. To be sure, Concrete Art was not hindered by Europe's borders, and is encountered in America, for example, as Hard Edge painting, Color Field painting and Minimal Art. Yet the conscious focus on Europe reveals a wide and fertile terrain.

This publication provides a comprehensive survey of the various styles and approaches represented in the works of 171 artists from 22 countries. For all its diversity, the collection forms a coherent whole by virtue of the definition of Concrete Art as an aesthetic form standing solely for itself, as opposed to striving for an abstract or symbolic illustration of the visually perceivable world. The spectrum ranges from the geometric forms and pure colours in the painting of Josef Albers, Max Bill and Victor Vasarely to the beginnings of computer art as seen in the work of Manfred Mohr, from the virtual sculptures of Gerhard Mantz to the latest examples of Concrete Photography.