Provenance
The Artist's Estate
Note:Heinz Sevenich was born in 1935 in Aachen, western Germany. As a draughtsman and architect, he contributed significantly to the development of Aachen's urban landscape, including the innovative university hospital – one of the largest and most technically advanced in Europe – which in terms of style can be said to be related to the contemporary Centre Pompidou in Paris.
How he was simultaneously able to cultivate himself and be so productively advanced as an artist is quite fascinating. He had a burning passion for art's open field of imagination and the liberating force that lay beyond architecture's stricter regulations - Picasso and Braque remained a lifelong inspiration. Travelling to large parts of Europe, the Middle East and Asia, often together with his wife Margret, provided constant inspiration. A journey to Cambodia through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India and Thailand made a particularly deep impression.
From that geography, parallels can be drawn to Heinz Sevenich's boundary-crossing explorations in his own creative practice, which elegantly navigated between varying styles, methods and materials. At different stages he worked with sculptures in wood, stone, plaster and mechanical parts; he created images in everything from oil, gouache and tempera to charcoal, ink, pencil and pastel; he experimented with various functional materials, produced collages, formulated formal analyses and created philosophical and literary works.
His talent and inventiveness were evident from an early age. He produced abstract works of art as a teenager. Held several patents. Made furniture and tools. Everywhere he saw opportunities to improve and beautify. Among much else, this resulted in a series of exhibitions, both solo and with the artist group Rhombus in Aachen.