In the oeuvre of Günther Förg, lead is both an important material and a fundamental symbol. The unique texture of lead, which is heavy, naturally toxic, yet soft and malleable, offers an incomparable surface on which the infinite possibilities of the medium of painting are revealed.
Förg was particularly fascinated by the material properties of lead and its ability to react with organic chemical substances: “I really like the properties of lead - the surface, the heaviness. Some of my paintings have been completely painted and you can only see the lead on the edges, this gives the painting a very heavy feel - it gives the color a different density and a different weight."
Especially this interaction of the lead surface and the brushstrokes of paint is Förg’s main interest from a painterly point of view, as he puts it: “Well, yes, one could say quite concretely that the composition of my lead pictures is anonymous whereas the manner in which they have been painted is expressive.” In his diptych, Förg additionally creates a kind of dialogue between the two panels that are treated in a slightly different way, but combined to a two-fold unity.
