Hugo Arne Buch (1927-2008)

Hugo Arne Buch began exhibiting with the Colorists in 1957, and since then, the association's annual exhibitions have been able to follow a development from controlled, flat-focused, concrete painting to the more expressive pictures of recent years, where forms work in a free, dynamic pictorial space. B. painted his first abstract pictures when he returned home in 1947 from a six-month study stay in Paris. These paintings were characterized by the free play of colors, lines, and light. However, B. was very quickly captivated by the concrete painting that the artists of Linien II had formulated in a series of exhibitions in 1948-51. When B. debuted at KE in 1952, he had thus left the vegetative style behind in favor of a tighter idiom. At the same time, the bright, light colors were replaced by a palette dominated by earthy colors. These early concrete paintings are based on black, beam-like structures. They are dark with a few blue accents. Although B. did not become a member of Linien II, the kinship was obvious, and he also participated when some of the main forces behind the group in 1956 organized the exhibition Linien 3. Concrete realism. The hanging at this exhibition heralded a shift in B.'s concrete painting, where the black structures were gradually replaced by well-defined, often rectangular surfaces. The colors remained dark, but the scale was expanded to include dark violet, orange and deep red. In general, B.'s pictures from the 1950s reflect an increasingly greater interest in the texture of colors. He contrasted glossy and matte color areas as well as bold and diluted color layers. When B. participated in the Youth Biennale in Paris in 1961, his painting had changed character again. The strict, concrete style had softened and heralded a new phase with inspiration from informal painting. The structures and geometric shapes were abandoned, and color gradually became the guiding principle in his art. B.'s mature work is thus characterised by the strong colours that conquer the canvas. They create infinite, dynamic spaces where complementary colour areas in red/green and blue/orange are broken. B. intervenes and seeks to maintain the stage in the process where chaos becomes order or vice versa. Here forms and structures are born, while others are apparently in the process of abolishing themselves. The paintings from recent years range from dramatic compositions where black and red dominate to lyrical moods. The lyrical character is particularly characteristic of the watercolours which have long occupied a significant place in B.'s production.

Source: Weilbach's Artists' Encyclopedia