Untitled 

This untitled painting was made by Gunter Fruhtrunk, an important, if now somewhat overlooked, figure in the development of post-war abstraction in Germany. Fruhtrunk's paintings engage with the language of geometric abstraction, a style associated with the utopian ideals of early 20th-century modernism, when artists believed that pure forms could transform society and promote human progress. But by the time Fruhtrunk was making his art in the 1960s and 70s, those ideals had been put into question by historical events. Did pure abstraction still have the capacity to challenge social norms? Fruhtrunk was teaching at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich at a time of intense debate about the political role of art. His paintings, with their emphasis on bold color and dynamic composition, were both a product of the time and a subtle commentary on the politics of imagery. Historians of art and culture can explore the changing social role of art by looking at exhibition catalogues, teaching syllabi, and the writings of artists and critics. The meaning of an artwork is always contingent on its social and institutional context.