I am ARTUS, a painter of geometric abstraction based in Cologne.

I work with acrylics on stretched canvas or rigid panels.

The majestic calm of the square, this fundamental form of all geometry, as well as the radiant power of rich, pure colors emerging from it, have deeply captivated me. The continuum of color variations, the combinatorics of arrangements, and the serial variations open up vast, seemingly endless universes of compositional possibilities, far from being fully explored.

My inspirations include the Bauhaus and European modernism of the 1920s, as well as Hard Edge painting and Color Field painting in the Anglo-American context.

An early key influence in this direction was Paul Klee, particularly his work “Superschach.” To name just a few further sources of inspiration: Johannes Itten, Anton Stankowski, Richard Paul Lohse, Josef Albers, Gerhard Richter, Max Bill, Kenneth Noland, Victor Vasarely, and Zdeněk Sýkora.

Art has been a central part of my life since the age of 17, when I received a book on Kandinsky as a graduation prize. A guest semester at the Cologne Werkschule for Graphic Design with Professor Wewerka further shaped my path, especially through a project titled “Copy Kandinsky until you know him by heart and are free to create your own work.”

However, the real breakthrough with tangible, presentable results came during the COVID lockdowns of 2022 and 2023. Working from home, I developed a series of 100 x 100 cm works that soon demanded to be released into the world.