C.O. Paeffgen artworks and editions

C.O. Paeffgen, whose civil name is Claus Otto Paeffgen, is a contemporary painter and sculptor from Germany. Today the artist lives and works in his hometown of Cologne.

Paeffgen first studied law in Cologne and Berlin. In 1988 he gave up law and began to devote himself to art in the 1970s. In addition to his paintings, he made his so-called "Umwicklungen". These are found objects that he joined together with wire. A technique that the artist maintains to this day. These works are contrasted with his "Umrandungen", with which he achieved great fame in the 1980s. They are depictions from newspapers, painted over with felt-tip pen, which only reproduce the most striking contours of the portraits depicted.

The stylistic simplicity of the strong lines in C.O. Paeffgen's artworks and editions has a unique expressive power, which is given an additional boost by the strong reduction of the figurative. Thus C.O. Paeffgen picks up elements of trivial culture in his works, which he then alienates in various ways. Through this alienation with the means of reduction, C.O. Paeffgen makes it possible to experience the everyday flood of media in a new way and sensitizes us to the way human tragedies are dealt with in society.

C.O. Paeffgen's artworks and editions have been shown in numerous gallery, museum and art hall exhibitions. In 1999, a large retrospective was dedicated to the Cologne artist at the Museum Ludwig.