Rupprecht Geiger was born in Munich in 1908. He studied architecture at Munich’s applied arts institute, the Kunstgewerbeschule, from 1926 to 1929, and from 1933 and 1935 attended its Staatsbauschule, a school of architecture. Geiger began his military service in 1940, and over the years he taught himself to paint. He produced his first abstract pictures in 1947, which are characterised by large planes of colour. In 1949 he began to work as a freelance architect and was a co-founder, along with Willi Baumeister, Fritz Winter and others, of the artists’ group ZEN 49. In 1951 Geiger designed the facade of Munich’s main train station. In the late 1950s he began to use luminous pigments in his works. He was first represented at documenta in Kassel in 1959, and also on three later occasions. From 1965 to 1976 Geiger taught painting at Düsseldorf’s art academy, and in 1979 he was made an honorary member of the school. In 1993 he was also named an honorary member of Munich’s academy, the Akademie der bildenden Künste. Geiger died in Munich in 2009.
