Biography  Born and raised in Frankfurt, Irene Kau started her working life with a traditional career before discovering her interest for oil painting in 1962. From that time on, she pursued the goal of becoming an artist.She studied diligently in various art Naming programs such as the Liebig School's "Experimental Painting", courses at the Staedel School with Herman Nitsch and developed her painting style Ah intense practice under the direction of Hans Wucher. Irene Kau's forms of expression are basically products of her living environment, including the warm colorful beauty of West Florida and the academic metaphysical surroundings of Frankfurt's Westend. From this background come Irene Kau's virtuosity with color and form to create art in a variety of themes and motives each striving to achieve a definite accomplishment, each extracting beauty and meaning typical of a gifted artist. Her ideasare continually varied, transformed and reestablished.Color and form in Irene Kau's paintings can explode and leap off the canvas like an avalanche to the observer. Initially, one thinks such works are the product of spontaneity and intense impulsiveness. ht her paintings are seldom spontaneous. On the contrary, they may involve thinking, planning and meditative creativity spanning an intellectual discourse of several weeks or even months.Inspired by philosophical, religious and esoteric thinking, Irene Kau succeeds meaningfully to represent in her works concepts of spiritual power and magnitude. She works to involve the observer in a living communication with spiritual concepts and motivate one to return to one's inner self despite the day to day hectic most people must endure. Her paintings help move one to inner peace and thoughtful relaxation. The works of Irene Kau also successfully transport long forgotten feelings, experiences and visionary patterns into the present. Past and often forgotten energy is brought back and renewed.If the observer is successful in distancing himself from the barrier's of association and metaphor in Irene Kau's paintings, relying purely on an analysis of the color and form, he will experience the following elements:Quiet, geometric forms are often found opposite lively, pliable, plastic shapes. The strokes of her brush are often dynamic, leaving one under a collage of cascading structures.In this manner, Irene Kau omen uses archetypes, such as the circle, through which such important sources of light as the sun and the moon since time immemorial have played a vastly important role. The circle becomes a primordial form - but not in the sense of an omnipresent factor. More so, the circle motive moves freely throughout the painting. They struggle for dominance, vie for attention and, as such, form powerful symbols. Just as the artist seeks meaning in deep emotion and prominent original forms, she also embarks on an important journey with her selection of color.Form may have the first word, but color definitely has the last. Goethe spoke of the meaningful-spiritual effect of color. According to Goethe, color has a meaningful - i.e., outward appearance and a spiritual - i.e., emotional components, the latter having to do with the emotional-spiritual aspects of mankind.Irene Kau utilizes a vast, symbolic color spectrum in her works. It begins with soft earth tones such as yellow, sand, and earth yellow and reaches to a shining deep blue, which reminds one of the works of the French artist Yves Klein, who was one of the first artists to do monochrome paintings.The basic materials used in the paintings contained in this catalog are oil and acrylic paints. These paints are modified with special pigments, marble dust, and quartz sand - especially useful for the painting of monochrome pictures. Of special importance are the two series "People" and "Total Movement". The paintings contained in the series "People" are especially defined by a brilliant color scale and manner of form both typical expressions of great scarcity. Quiet, often geometric forms are found opposite pliable, plastic shapes. Constructive abstraction follows one behind the world of rationality and pressing meditation.Color intensive, abstract and lively - but also monochrome, quiet compositions from the series "Total Movement" (1995-1997) document Irene Kau's statement of modern times.The artist's fine-tuned apprehension of everyday occurrences make the broad realm of her expressive ability. So thematically well presented is the art of this series from the many aspects of everyday life that one is led to experience the qualities of the real world.Her works represent growth, formation and power, albeit peace and solitude - something vainly sought by almost everyone in this hectic time - qualities found in many of Irene Kau's paintings. Dr. Dagmar Altgeld-Peters