Anja Decker, German School, Gestural Abstract Tempera Painting On Paper, 1950s – 29.5 X 21 Cm

Anja Decker, gestural abstract tempera painting on paper, 1950s – 29.5 x 21 cm

Anja Decker (Berlin, 1908 – Munich, 1995) belongs to the generation of German artists who, already in the 1950s, developed a new abstract language grounded in gesture, material and physical intensity. Her work fits within the climate of European Art Informel, naturally resonating with Action Painting and Abstract Expressionism, while maintaining an autonomous, dense and organic pictorial handwriting.

Medium: tempera on paper

Painting size: 29.5 x 21 cm

White passe-partout: 50 x 60 cm

Mounted on an original vintage black exhibition board

This work was exhibited in 2024 at the Kunsthalle Emden, in the exhibition “Bilder wie Energiemaschinen. Otto van de Loo zum Hundertsten” (10 February – 12 May 2024), dedicated to the centenary of Otto van de Loo, an important German gallerist, collector and publisher, who played a key role in promoting postwar avant-garde and Informel painting in Germany. On this occasion, works by Anja Decker were presented in significant number, within a museum context bringing together artists connected with COBRA, SPUR and other European postwar experimental movements, including several important female artists.

The composition is built through broad orange and black passages, crossed by drips, imprints and incisive marks. Some shapes suggest stylized bodies, allusive presences emerging from the paint surface, suspended between abstraction and organic memory.

Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Anja Decker studied under Olaf Gulbransson (1873–1958), the renowned Norwegian caricaturist and illustrator and a major figure of the Munich artistic scene. Her painting reflects a long-established artistic maturity, clearly distinguishing her from younger postwar generations.