Otto Lehmann - Without title - Sold

Screen print from 1995 on sturdy paper. Hand signed and numbered, edition 25/33.
Image size = paper size.
Otto Lehmann (1943-2021): As a person he was rather quiet - but as an artist he was uncompromising. Otto Lehmann was one of the quieter artists from Lucerne. He came from Solothurn and had been active in Lucerne since the early 1960s, initially mainly in his skilled profession as a graphic artist and from the early 1980s exclusively as a freelance artist. He never made much fuss about his person. And when you met him, there were probably quiet conversations, but he never made himself the center of attention. However, in his work he was different - goal-oriented, uncompromising, strict with himself, concentrated on an independent and unmistakable formal language. He largely limited himself to the medium of drawings and initially to the human figure, which he captured on paper with a broad black pen in often extremely existential situations. Lehmann soon expanded the spectrum of his motifs, focusing on homes, landscapes, complexly structured rooms, a kind of urban landscape and finally textile-like lattice compositions. Here too he remained largely faithful to the dark, melancholic atmosphere. In November 2019, Lehmann surprised the art museum in Solothurn with a show of mostly large and often intensely colored drawings, which he had placed over several museum rooms. He used 'Noli me tangere' (Don't touch me) as an ambiguous title that warned on the one hand of the enchanting power of the forms written on paper in an expressive style and on the other hand of the moving sensitivity and vulnerability of the artist. It is possible that Lehmann responded with these works to his illness (a rare form of leukemia) from which he suffered. The drawings are reminiscent of flower-like, growing and proliferating micro-organisms. In addition to the heaviness, they also testify to a tenderness that manifests itself in the bright colors of the leaves. Otto Lehmann taught at the Lucerne School of Art and Design and received several awards for his work, including a federal grant, the recognition prize of the city of Lucerne, and a prize for painting from the Canton of Solothurn. He had exhibitions in galleries in Lucerne, several times in the Kunstmuseum Solothurn and in the Kunstmuseum des Kantons Thurgau. In 2014 he created a large art-in-architecture work in the Solothurn prison in Deitingen, with the motif of the red Ariadne thread and consisting of several large wall drawings. In accordance with his nature, Otto Lehmann as an artist was more of a 'secret tip', who appealed to a small but loyal circle of collectors with his work. His work is kept in the collections of the art museums in Solothurn, Olten and Lucerne.
Lucerne newspaper