Ackermann, Max

Description:

Berlin, 1887 - Unterlengenhardt, 1975
185 x 125 cm, R.
Composition, 1964. Oil on canvas. Signed and dated in coloured chalk on the reverse of the stretcher "14. - 18. September 1964".
Galerie Döbele, Stuttgart.
Collection Monika and Horst Bülow, Leonberg, acquired there in 1987.
This large 1964 canvas belongs to Max Ackermann’s mature production, in which he consummates his sustained development toward an abstract, colour-centered language. The composition unfolds in a deep, near-immaterial blue that permeates the entire pictorial field. Fine linear accents in black, white, and red traverse the surface, articulating a delicately tuned rhythmic lattice, while pale veils of colour at the upper and lower edges lend a subtle spatial opening.
Ackermann treats the canvas not as a traditional plane but as a resonance chamber for visual harmony recalling musical structures. Reduced lines and geometric markers appear like tones, condensing into a score of colour and movement. The radiant blue, spread with painterly density across the work, becomes the bearer of meditative depth and spiritual dimension.
The early 1960s marked a phase of intensified exploration of a universal colour harmony. In contrast to the expressive currents of the postwar period, Ackermann here advances a visual language of order, clarity, and near-contemplative calm - in close dialogue with international abstraction yet unmistakably his own.
The present work impresses not only through monumental scale but through the purity and resolve of its pictorial idea. In the precision of the lines, the luminous intensity of the blues, and the balance of contrasts, Ackermann elevates painting into a sphere of the spiritual and timeless - a work of compelling presence emblematic of his late oeuvre.