Gotthard Graubner (b. 1930) was a German contemporary artist known for his painted cushions and exploration on the anatomy of colors. His philosophical outlook on shape and form created a new technique for artistic expression.

Colors are a constant motif in Graubner’s that is everchanging. Throughout the years of his practice, Graubner moved away from the flat water-colored surfaces to a three-dimensional design accentuating color. In his early work Farbkissen (color pillow) and Farbkorper (color bodies), Graubner crossed boundaries by composing two-dimensional paintings that went beyond the flat surface, stretching the canvas over foam and perlon constructing body like forms.

“My images act as a mirror for light. A source of light, a filter, a trampoline for light. Light is thrown back from the taut skin of the images; it presses underneath the skin; awakes the colours; saturates itself with them; fills voids and allows the pulse of the colours to press outward through the skin.” Gotthard Graubner, “Zauber des Lichts”, Recklinghausen 1967

Gotthard Graubner was a German artist, born in Erlbach, in Saxony Germany. In 1947-48 he studied at the Berlin Academy of Arts before transferring to the Dresden Art Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied until 1952. Soon migrating west of Germany, Graubner preceded his practices at Düsseldorf Academy of Arts right before pursuing his career as an art educator.

Gotthard Graubner died in Neuss, Germany in 2013.