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Artist group

Gruppe WIR

1959–1965 · München

Three painters from the Munich Academy founded Gruppe WIR ("We") in 1959: Florian Köhler, Heino Naujoks and Helmut Rieger. Reinhold Heller joined in 1961, the sculptor Hans Matthäus Bachmayer in 1962.

Founded
1959
Disbanded
1965
Place
München
Merged into
Gruppe GEFLECHT
Authority records
GND, Wikidata

From the Baroque to Cobra

The young painters came out of Art Informel, the gestural, non-figurative painting of the post-war years. At first they looked to the Baroque, to Peter Paul Rubens above all.

From about 1962 the Cobra painting of Karel Appel and Asger Jorn took hold, passed on by Helmut Sturm and HP Zimmer of SPUR. Rieger and Heller also drew on Jean Dubuffet.

Each work was meant to stand on its own and still speak for the group.

1965: WIR and SPUR

In 1965 WIR merged with Gruppe SPUR. The result was Gruppe GEFLECHT.

Today

In 2015 the Museum Lothar Fischer in Neumarkt and the Kunsthalle Schweinfurt surveyed the group. Since 2024 the Initiative WIR has looked after the estates of Köhler, Naujoks, Rieger, Bachmayer and Heller.

Works by members

Works by members from the founding collection, not only from the years of the group.

Sources

Literature

  • Cobra, Spur, Wir, Geflecht, Kollektiv Herzogstraße (Ausstellungskatalog). Ganserhaus, Wasserburg am Inn, 1983
  • Gruppe WIR 1959–1965 (Ausstellungskatalog). Kunstverein München, Kunstverein Salzburg, 1987
  • Gruppe WIR. 1959–1965. Hans Matthäus Bachmayer. Hrsg. Pia Dornacher, Selima Niggl; Schreiber, München, 2015, ISBN 978-3-88960-146-9

As of: 2026-10-12