Karl Otto Götz, known as K. O. Götz, was born in Aachen in 1914. In 1929 he attended the advanced weaving school in Aachen as well as its school of applied arts, the Kunstgewerbeschule, and produced his first woodcuts and abstract studies. In 1934 he completed an apprenticeship as a draughtsman in a carpet factory. A year later he was banned from painting and showing his work by the National Socialists, and in 1939 he was drafted. The following year he was transferred to Dresden, where he became acquainted with Otto Dix. In 1941 he studied for a semester at Dresden’s art academy before returning to Norway, where he had previously been stationed. In 1945 Götz moved to Hamelin, and in 1949 he took part in the first major exhibition of the artists’ group CoBrA in Amsterdam. Götz moved to Frankfurt am Main in 1950 and made his first trips to Paris. He was represented at documenta 2 in Kassel in 1959, at the 29th Venice Biennale in 1958 and the 34th in 1968. In that same year he was invited to teach at Düsseldorf’s art academy, where in time he would teach such artists as Gotthard Graubner, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter. He was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 2007. Götz is considered an important representative of German Art Informel. The artist lives and works in Niederbreitbach-Wolfenacker.
