Bruno Gronen

Bruno Gronen (*1937 in Hamburg) was already active on an international level as early as the 1960s. Following his training as a typesetter in Augsburg (1955–1958) and his subsequent studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under Franz Nagel, he made numerous study trips throughout Europe. From 1962 through 1964, he lived in Sri Lanka. During the years 1976–1978, he travelled to New York and Chicago. Today, Bruno Gronen lives and works in Cologne.

NEON INSTALLATION & MONOCHROME PAINTINGS

“Neon Installation & Monochrome Paintings” was created specifically for the two rooms of the Horbach Foundation. Emotionally stirring light-colour auras – here, in dialogue with monochrome fields of colour on canvases – function like paint, which the artist takes in his hands and transforms into art through compositional structuring. A sense of power, peace or acceleration is evoked when neon tubes leaning against the wall become snakes creeping upwards, while reflexions on the floor develop into mystical light spaces, and colour and light reflexions on the windows transport the installation like a Fata Morgana into the outside world. Bruno Gronen’s ensembles oscillate on the border zone between painting and object; they are created out of the urge to constantly question potential possibilities of the fundamental tools of painting, namely colour, form, light (and with this plasticity), and space.