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Artists from A-Z Otto Abt

1903–1982
  • Intérieur mit Tulpen (um 1957)
    Intérieur mit Tulpen
    Artist: Otto Abt Dating: um 1957 Type: Painting Material: Oil on canvas Measures: 66,2 x 91,2 cm Acces / purchase date: 1958 Inventory number: 0007 Copyright: © Otto Abt; Fotos: Christian Baur, Basel
  • Die blaue Stunde (1956)
    Die blaue Stunde
    Artist: Otto Abt Dating: 1956 Type: Work on paper Material: Pencil on paper Measures: 17 x 22,8 cm Acces / purchase date: 1957 Inventory number: 0002 Copyright: © Otto Abt; Fotos: Christian Baur, Basel
  • Fin de saison (also "Der Photograph") (1960)
    Fin de saison (also "Der Photograph")
    Artist: Otto Abt Dating: 1960 Type: Painting Material: Oil on canvas Measures: 66 x 88,5 cm Acces / purchase date: 1960 Inventory number: 0008 Copyright: © Otto Abt; Fotos: Christian Baur, Basel
  • Jardin d'été (1952)
    Jardin d'été
    Artist: Otto Abt Dating: 1952 Type: Painting Material: Oil on canvas Measures: 50 x 61 cm Acces / purchase date: 1957 Inventory number: 0001 Copyright: © Otto Abt; Fotos: Christian Baur, Basel
  • Après la fête (Barcelone) II (1956/1957)
    Après la fête (Barcelone) II
    Artist: Otto Abt Dating: 1956/1957 Type: Work on paper Material: Pencil and watercolor on paper Measures: 20,7 x 16,3 cm Acces / purchase date: 1957 Inventory number: 0006 Copyright: © Otto Abt; Fotos: Christian Baur, Basel
  • Lachender Fisch (1956/1957)
    Lachender Fisch
    Artist: Otto Abt Dating: 1956/1957 Type: Painting Material: Oil on canvas Measures: 105,5 x 135,5 cm Acces / purchase date: 1957 Inventory number: 0005 Copyright: © Otto Abt; Fotos: Christian Baur, Basel
  • La hora azul [Twilight Hour] (1956)
    La hora azul [Twilight Hour]
    Artist: Otto Abt Dating: 1956 Type: Painting Material: Oil on canvas Measures: 20,3 x 32,5 cm Acces / purchase date: 1957 Inventory number: 0003 Copyright: © Otto Abt; Fotos: Christian Baur, Basel
At the beginning of the 1930s, Otto Abt turned away from a tonal Impressionist painting style and moved towards Surrealism. From 1940 onwards, he produced the works most important for his later development, Sphinx dans l'année 39 (1940-1943), Fin d'hiver (1946) and Relations (1943, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel, Kunstmuseum). Picasso's works from the 1930s provided Abt with important inspiration. Monumentality and structuring contouring increased in his paintings.

Studio scenes were Abt's central motifs. The board floor is unfolded to form a stage on which life is played out in all its contradictoriness. Landscapes were mainly created during his numerous travels. In addition, he was also intensively occupied with still life. He was fixated on the world of things; people were excluded as bearers of action and meaning. Figures with a portrait-like character are very rare. Individuality had little value for Abt, except as a personification of still-life objects. Camouflage, masking and unmasking are central themes in his works. In the interior depictions (elegant rooms, lounges, the empty dining room of a hotel), the motifs of the mirror attached to the back wall parallel to the picture plane and the open or closed window recur again and again.

In his drawings, Abbot developed a characteristic style with short strokes. The tendency towards the ideogram - he worked out a system of signs comparable to the words of a language - and the intention to typify explain his preference for sketching with a felt-tip pen. His drawings are notes that served to find form and were further worked on in the studio. Constant revisions and changes of title do not allow for a strict chronology in retrospect of Abbot's work.

Sibylle E. Burckhardt: «Otto Abt». In: SIKART Lexikon zur Kunst in der Schweiz, 2010.