Gerold Heinz Luft-Pavlata (1931-2014) was a German painter educated at the old Berlin Art Academy after WWII, and trained by renowned artists Hans Jaenisch and Max Kaus. Pavlata also studied engraving at the legendary Atelier 17 in Paris with S. W. Hayter. During this period, he participated in group exhibitions in Paris, Berlin, Munich, Wolfsburg, and Hannover, sometimes along with his friends and colleagues Peter Klasen and Georg Baselitz.

In 1960 he married and moved to Mexico to work on restoration of Spanish-era buildings and art. He spent the next fifty years producing provocative, contemporary compositions, at times reminiscent of old themes in new ways (e.g. American football players, which he called "modern bullfighting” or erotica using clips and wires).

Inspired by Dadaists and asking serious questions about the role of art in the modern age he delivered criticism with deadpan humor, clever turns, and integrity. Pavlata’s oeuvre is characterized by the freedom of those who do not create to please or to sell.

His work encompasses themes and techniques from old world Expressionism and Mannerism (during his European years) to Surrealism (starting in Mexico) to his newly developed interests and methods inspired by American contemporary topics and Spanish-Colonial practices.

His series depicting American football players explored large formats conveying action, courage, and humor. Pavlata used the pretext of movement, united with the static nature of the decontextualized objects, to project an attractive and disturbing contradiction.

During the late 1980s Pavlata began his erotic oil painting series, using clippings from adult magazines, and brought them to an aesthetic degree, highly refined, and colorful.

Both these series show an advanced degree of mastery of stroke and color management as well as great compositional maturity.

Later he moved to pencil and charcoal drawing, lithographs, metal engravings, glass paintings, installations, collages, and ready-made art (e.g. wires, clips, nails).

His more abstract subjects can be seen in lithographs and in a large number of paintings with green background, some with phrases in Gothic German, which convert each work into a “Poster Painting” (as he called them).

Pavlata’s work, exhibited in Mexico, the United States, and Europe, can be found in private collections in Europe and the Americas.

For more information about Luft-Pavlata’s life and work visit this page.