User:Ynestlen/Hermann Geiger (artist)

Hermann Geiger (October 30, 1904 – September 1, 1989) was a German artist and graphic designer.

Life and work

Born in Stuttgart, he had hard times as a youth. World War I broke out when he was but ten years old and as the son of impoverished parents he had to earn his own living. Out of these unsettled times and many hardships there arose in him the need to create art. This need translated into artistic virtue.

He began his studies at the Academy of Art in Stuttgart in 1933. His artistic talent soon earned him a scholarship and he became an assistant to his professor. Unfortunately, World War II interrupted and disrupted his promising development.

The artist’s many-sided talent included paintings, drawings, sketches, landscapes, portraits, nudes, graphics, frescos, mosaics, stained glass windows and Art sgraffitis. Over the years his repertoire changed from Naturalism to Impressionism and Expressionism to the Skurril (bizarre and grotesque) statements of today.

In Geiger's deliberately structured compositions man and animal predominate. The intuitive artist does not admit absolute abstractions; he values the ever-present distinction of form and color. His penchant for technical experimentation with unusual materials distinguishes his works into his old age.

Geiger's late works are imbued with precisely fantastical “Skurril-Fableworld” wherein man and animal reign. His demons and human animals are in a “funhouse mirror”, as if pinpointed under a microscope. These figures turn on their own axis and their imprisoned souls are instantly freed. Subconsciously, we suddenly sense this progression of the artist in his drawings and paintings. This emergence of the human in the animal or the animal in the human is more real than reality itself.

In Geiger's works one recognizes his irrefutable creative generosity. His deep sensitivity to human nature is shown repeatedly in critical expression. He is constantly searching for paths to reality and poses the question: Why does Man fail so often? This critical search for truth is expressed mostly through the monstrous and grotesque aspects of his Skurril creatures.

Geiger is totally convinced that a balance is possible between sanity and insanity. Therefore, human nature would still be valued in a representation tending toward the Skurril. His works are effervescent with wit and mockery and an inimitable, intellectual, reconciling humor.

He found his expression in figurative paintings and drawings. In this he achieved mastery. His life experience and fantasy give his work an unusual appeal.