Ivo Ringe (born July 5, 1951) is a German artist, who is classified as a

concrete art Concrete art was an art movement with a strong emphasis on geometrical abstraction. The term was first formulated by Theo van Doesburg and was then used by him in 1930 to define the difference between his vision of art and that of other abstract art ...

painter. He is also a

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de con ...

and a

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of international group exhibitions.

Life and work

In 1972 Ringe began studying

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

at the

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at the academy include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Magdalena Jetelová ...

under the instruction of professor

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

. Like

Imi Knoebel Imi Knoebel (/i:mi: kno:ʊbəl/) (born Klaus Wolf Knoebel; 1940) is a German artist. Knoebel is known for his minimalist, abstract painting and sculpture. The "Messerschnitt" or "knife cuts," are a recurring technique he employs, along with his ...

and Blinky Palermo, Ringe belongs to the Minimalism (visual arts)#Minimal art movement among Beuys' students. In 1974 he shifted the focus of this study and became a scholar of professor Rolf Sackenheim devoting himself to the study of graphic arts. In 1977 Ivo Ringe was awarded "Master scholar" ("Meisterschüler") by Rolf Sackenheim. Already during his studies, Ringe explored

tessellation A tessellation or tiling is the covering of a surface, often a plane, using one or more geometric shapes, called ''tiles'', with no overlaps and no gaps. In mathematics, tessellation can be generalized to higher dimensions and a variety o ...

and

Islamic geometric patterns Islamic geometric patterns are one of the major forms of Islamic ornament, which tends to avoid using figurative images, as it is forbidden to create a representation of an important Islamic figure according to many holy scriptures. The ge ...

, manifesting works of silkscreen print,

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

and

ceramic tile A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain, ...

. Kunst von Ivo Ringe Titel Evolve.jpg, "Evolve" , Etching on handmade paper, 1977 Kunst von Ivo Ringe Titel Sechseck Bewegung.jpg, "Sechseck" ("Hexagon"), glazed ceramic, 1976 Ivo Ringe Sechseck III.jpg, "Sechseck III" ("Hexagon III"),

Aquatint Aquatint is an intaglio (printmaking), intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. ...

–Etching
on handmade paper, 1976 A 1992 fire in his studio destroyed many of the artist's works. Since 2008, Ringe has been a lecturer in the fields of ''drawing and illustration technique'' at the Academy of Design "Ecosign", founded by Karin-Simone Fuhs. Since 2011, he is docent and since 2014 artistic director of the studio for fine arts ("Atelier für Bildende Kunst") at the

Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

. Ringe lives and works in Cologne, Germany. In 2015, Ringe had an extensive exhibition of his works at the ''Kunsthaus Rehau'' in Rehau, Germany, that inspired

Eugen Gomringer Eugen Gomringer (born 20 January 1925 in Cachuela Esperanza, Bolivia) is a Bolivian-born German concrete poet. He is head of the Institut für Konstruktive Kunst und Konkrete Poesie (IKKP) in Rehau, Germany. Between 1977 and 1990, he was a profes ...

to write a sonnet about his work. Ringe lives and works in Cologne, Germany. He is a member of the Deutscher Künstlerbund. Ringe is married to the US-American sculptor

Heather Sheehan Heather Sheehan (born December 9, 1961) is an American artist who lives and works in Cologne, Germany. In her work, she combines elements of sculpture, installation, performance, video art and black and white photography. Her work focuses on th ...

Work

First, Ivo Ringe sets the background color of the painting, that often appears to be monochromatic, but in reality consists of a multitude of differing color nuances that overlap one another: "It is not unusual for a supposedly black surface to emerge from the laying of many shades of dark blue and violet. In the case of white, there are often up to six different layers of white superimposed on each other." (In German: "So entsteht nicht selten eine vermeintlich schwarze Fläche aus dem Nebeneinander vieler Dunkelblau- und Violett-Töne. In einem Weiß sind häufig bis zu sechs verschiedene weiße Flächen übereinandergesetzt.") These colors are the result of Ringe's mixtures of powder pigments. He then sets ''orientation points'' on the canvas, which he connects with brush strokes to create a net-like structure. The position of these points is based on classical proportions of beauty, as they were formulated in antiquity. Kunst von Ivo Ringe St. Yves 2016.jpg, "St. Yves", 2016, 30 x 24 cm, Oil on Canvas Kunst von Ivo Ringe Shadow of a Field 2015.jpg, "Shadow of a Field", 2015, 180 x 320 cm, Pigments, Acrylic on Canvas Kunst von Ivo Ringe Titel Big Energy.jpg, ""Big Energy", 2007, 560 x 340 cm, Picture of the Installation at ''Artothek Köln'', Pigments, Acrylic on Linen Ringe uses the

Golden ratio In mathematics, two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities. Expressed algebraically, for quantities a and b with a > b > 0, where the Greek letter phi ( ...

, but also works with proportions from other culture's ideals of beauty, such as those from ancient Sanskrit texts. These net-like formations sometimes reach beyond the border of the painting, appearing to be without beginning or end. The structures are reminiscent of those occurring in the formation of

crystals A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...

and other structures in nature. His works manifest – as in nature – from preliminary fundamentals and phenomenon which occur in the act of painting: "His approach ..consciously draws an equivalence between the formal development of a painting and the growth of a leaf or a crystal; in each, complexity is achieved through the interaction of preset and random elements."

Curatorship

In 2014 Ivo Ringe curated together with Viola Weigel the group exhibition "Strukturen/Structures: British and German Painting in Dialogue", which was shown successively at the Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven (May 10, 2014 to August 24, 2014) and at the Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange (October 11, 2014 to January 3, 2015). Eight British and German artists, whose abstract works are characterized by structures, showed their works. The artists in the exhibition were selected by Ringe, who also had considered the concept of the exhibition. Also in 2014 (November 18 to December 13, 2014) Ivo Ringe curated together with Joe Barnes and Po Kim the group exhibition ''Painting Black'' for the Sylvia Wald and Po Kim-Art Gallery in New York with more than 30 artists from different countries. A group exhibition entitled ''Restructured'' took place at the Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange from July 18 to October 8, 2016, with artists from the first exhibition in 2014 and newcomers exhibiting their work. The artists were selected by Ivo Ringe.From 18 July to 6 August, many of the artists worked on site in a residency programme. Visitors were able to visit them in the studio and follow live how the works were created. Parallel to this, lectures and seminars by the artists took place. Blair Todd, the museum's curator, mentioned in a video interview that it was largely thanks to Ivo Ringe's "energy and passion" that this Artist-in-residence took place. James Green, the director, explains in the same video that the museum is not only interested in exhibiting current positions in abstract art, but above all in creating a "creative experimental space", in which artists can inspire each other. From February 10 to 24, 2018, another Artist in Residency on the theme of ''Structures'' took place in Penzance, again the artists were selected by Ivo Ringe. As a result of the exhibition ''Painting Black'' in New York in 2014, Ivo Ringe was invited by the Art collector Carl-Jürgen Schroth in Soest to organize an exhibition on this subject in the "Sammlung Schroth" at the Museum Wilhelm Morgner. 42 international artists from various countries showed their black works. In 2020, Ivo Ringe curated together with the curator Juliane Rogge the group exhibition ''Multilayer Vision 20/20'', for the "Sammlung Schroth" at the Museum Wilhelm Morgner, in Soest, Germany. Recent works of concrete art from fifty international artists were chosen to show the advancements in this field one-hundred years after the time of

Theo van Doesburg Theo van Doesburg (, 30 August 1883 – 7 March 1931) was a Dutch artist, who practiced painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl. He was married to artist, pianist and choreographer Nell ...

. Today, "Concrete art not only conquers the third dimension, but also adapts itself to the complexity of the present." (In German: "Die Konkrete Kunst erobert sich nicht nur die dritte Dimension, sondern passt sich damit auch einer komplexen Gegenwart an.")

Collections

* Museum Katharinenhof, Kranenburg, Germany. Title: ''ELECTRIC CHAIR'', 2008 / Acrylic on canvas, 78 x 64 cm * Artothek Köln, Cologne, Germany, two paintings * Collection of Art, Cooperative Bank Offenburg, Germany * Kunstmuseum Villa Zanders Bergisch Gladbach, Germany

Solo exhibitions

* 1993: ''Ivo Ringe - In den Bovenzaal'', Galerie Nouvelles Images, Den Haag, Netherlands * 1994: ''Ivo Ringe – Der Heilige Narr'', Stadtmuseum Siegburg, Siegburg, Germany * 2006: ''Ivo Ringe – New Paintings'', McBride Fine Art, Antwerpen, Belgium * 2007: Artothek Köln, Köln, Germany * 2009: ''Denn da ist keine Stelle, die Dich nicht sieht'', Neue Galerie Landshut, Landshut, Germany * 2009: ''Der Moment des Tuns'', Schaltwerk Kunst, Hamburg, Germany * 2010: ''Cosi parlo Zarathustra'', Antico Castello sul Mare, Rapallo, Italy * 2011: ''Ivo Ringe: New Moment'', Schaltwerk Kunst, Hamburg, Germany * 2015: ''Wisse das Bild'', Institut für Konstruktive Kunst und Konkrete Poesie (IKKP), Kunsthaus Rehau, Germany * 2016: ''Die Proportion der Dinge'', Galerie Nana Preussners, Hamburg, Germany * 2016: ''Morphic Fields'', Hionas Gallery, New York * 2018: ''Ivo Ringe: Or burst out from its confines and radiate'', Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, Penzance, England * 2019: ''Ivo Ringe: Simple Present'', Galerie Floss & Schultz, Cologne, Germany

Group exhibitions

* 2002: ''Concrete Art'', Conny Dietzschold Gallery, Sydney, Australia * 2003: ''Die Achtsamkeit des Augenblicks - 5 Maler'', Neuer Kunstverein Aschaffenburg, Germany, (amongst others with Jon Groom and Jerry Zeniuk) * 2005: ''At the Moment'', Studio 18 Gallery, New York, (u. a. with Jon Groom and Jerry Zeniuk) * 2008: ''NOW!'' Museum Katharinenhof, Kranenburg, Germany * 2009: ''Six Years McBride Fine Art'', Antwerpen, Belgium, (u. a. with Mona Breede and Thomas Grünfeld) * 2011: ''Ornamental'', Städtische Galerie Lippstadt, Germany * 2013: ''Reticulate'', McKenzie Fine Art, New York, (u. a. with

Vija Celmins Vija Celmins (pronounced VEE-ya SELL-muns;Hilarie M. Sheets and Randy Kennedy (September 24, 2015)''New York Times''. lv, Vija Celmiņa, pronounced TSEL-meen-ya) is a Latvian American visual artist best known for photo-realistic paintings and dr ...

Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese contemporary artist who works primarily in sculpture and installation, and is also active in painting, performance, video art, fashion, poetry, fiction, and other arts. Her work is based in conceptual art and shows some attribute ...

, Mark Sheinkman, Mark Lombardi) * 2014: ''Strukturen/Structures - Britische und Deutsche Malerei im Dialog'', Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven, Germany (with Tim Allen, Andrew Bick, Mark Francis, Ian McKeever,

Günther Förg Günther Förg (December 5, 1952 – December 5, 2013) was a German painter, graphic designer, sculptor and photographer. His abstract style was influenced by American abstract painting.

, Michael Jäger and Miro Zahra) * 2014: ''Structures/Strukturen - British and German Painting in Dialogue'',

Newlyn Art Gallery Newlyn Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located in Newlyn, Cornwall, UK. Opened in 1895, designed by James Hicks of Redruth and financed by John Passmore Edwards the gallery was conceived as a home and exhibition venue for the Newlyn ...

, England, (with Tim Allen, Andrew Bick, Mark Francis, Ian McKeever,

, Michael Jäger and Miro Zahra) * 2014: ''Painting Black'', Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Art Gallery, New York (with et al. Alain Biltereyst, Matthew Deleget, Vincent Como,

Robert C. Morgan Robert C. Morgan (born 1943) is an American art critic, art historian, curator, poet, and artist. Biography Robert C. Morgan received his M.F.A. in sculpture from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1975 and his Ph.D. in art education f ...

, Heiner Thiel and Don Voisine) * 2016: ''Restructured'', Newlyn Art Gallery, England, (with Tim Allen, Stefan Annerel, Andrew Bick, Rupert Eder, Mark Francis, Luke Frost,

, Michael Jäger, Michelle Jaffé, Alf Löhr, Frank Norden, Terry Pope,

, Shawn Stipling) *2016: ''The Pattern reveals Itself'', Claudia Weil Galerie, Friedberg, Germany * 2017: ''Painting Black'', Sammlung Schroth at the Museum Wilhelm Morgner, Soest, Germany *2017: ''The underlying Shape'', Galerie Floss und Schultz, Cologne, Germany * 2018: ''Structures Residency'', Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance, England * 2018: ''Grounds for Optimism'', Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, Penzance, England *2018: ''Köln Plus – Farbmalereipositionen, Verein für aktuelle Kunst e.V. Oberhausen, Oberhausen, Germany * 2019: ''Dots, Points, Circles'', Claudia Weil Galerie, Friedberg, Germany * 2020: ''Schönheit!?'' (''Beauty!?'', Galerie Gisela Clement, Bonn, Germany

Bibliography

* Honnef, Klaus, ''Ivo Ringe'', Katalog zur Ausstellung ''Ivo Ringe'' der Galerie Apicella, 1991 * * * *

References

External links

Ivo Ringe
at kunstaspekte.art

at artfacts.net * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ringe, Ivo Concrete art 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters 21st-century German painters 21st-century German male artists Modern painters German abstract artists German contemporary artists Artists from Bonn 1951 births Living people