Rupprecht Geiger – Rot-Orange auf Violett

Rot-Orange auf Violett (1981) is a signed screenprint by Rupprecht Geiger, one of postwar Germany's most dedicated investigators of colour as pure sensation. The limited edition print was created for Hundertbuch III — a portfolio and book project published by Guido Hildebrandt Verlag combining literary texts with original serigraphs, each dedicated to Geiger's lifelong, near-scientific exploration of red.

A single card, screenprinted in two colours — a deep violet field and a luminous gradient rectangle shifting from yellow-orange at its peak to red-orange below — is die-cut at the lower centre edge, creating a rectangular notch that gives the sheet an arch-like silhouette. This shaped format pushes the artwork beyond the conventional picture plane, connecting directly to Geiger's sustained interest in shaped canvases — a formal concern he shared with Frank Stella, though always in service of colour rather than structure. The result is a print with sculptural ambition and a pure chromatic encounter: the vast violet field making the inner gradient burn all the more intensely.

Issued in an edition of 100 + XX copies and hand-signed in pencil on the verso, this screenprint on card exemplifies Geiger's singular contribution to postwar abstraction — where colour is simultaneously subject, medium, and argument.

Rupprecht Geiger (German, 1908–2009) was a leading figure of postwar abstraction and Color Field painting, internationally recognized for his radiant monochromes and hard-edged geometric artworks. The son of painter Willi Geiger, he moved between architecture, painting, sculpture, and printmaking before dedicating himself fully to the exploration of color as an autonomous force.

Geiger’s abstract artworks are defined by precise geometric forms and an intense chromatic vocabulary, most notably his iconic reds. For Rupprecht Geiger, red was not merely a formal choice but a symbol of vitality, energy, and presence. Across paintings and limited edition prints, he investigated how color alone could generate spatial depth and emotional resonance, positioning his work at the forefront of non-objective art in postwar Germany.

In 1949, together with Willi Baumeister and Fritz Winter, Geiger co-founded the artist group Zen 49 in Munich, which played a decisive role in reestablishing abstract art in Germany after World War II. By the early 1960s, he concentrated exclusively on painting and printmaking, producing a body of artworks and fine art prints that remain central to European Color Field abstraction.

Rupprecht Geiger participated in multiple editions of documenta (2, 3, 4, and 6) and exhibited at the Museum for Non-Objective Painting, later the Guggenheim Museum. Major retrospectives at institutions such as the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin and the Lenbachhaus in Munich confirmed his enduring significance within twentieth-century art.