Ulrich Erben

Ulrich Erben was born in Düsseldorf (Germany) in 1940 and moved to Rome when he was sixteen. He is one of the major exponents of European Aniconic painting. He studied at the academies of Hamburg, Venice and Berlin. His first works are landscapes and still life, then he moved towards a work based on the intense link between geometry and nature, with a particular interest in architecture and the size of the spaces. In 1968 he painted his first white painting: this colour is the symbol of neutral painting, full of energy without figurative references.
Towards the end of the 1980s, Erben adds more matter on the white canvas, which becomes increasingly thick, while the rigid forms tend to dissolve more and more, going with the intensification of the use of colour. The colours become "colours of memory", thanks also to the light and the size of Ulrich Erben's paintings that increase the viewers’ engagement.

Submitted by Dep Art Gallery