Eberhard Ross German, 1959

Eberhard Ross lives and works between Mülheim and Frankfurt. He describes how “the original source of my work is nature, and its rhythms and patterns... I hear colours breathing and watch their sounds. A second important base of my works is Zen Buddhism, which I practice for many years. A further basic task which I try to realize with my works is expressed best in a quote by Agnes Martin, the wonderful Canadian painter. She once said “when I think of art I think of beauty - beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye, it is in the mind. In our minds is awareness of perfection. All art work is about beauty"."

In Ross' abstract Speicher, White Writing, and Fermata paintings, he painstakingly covers canvases with calligraphic networks of lines and patterns that develop organically and repetitively. The "Speicher" ("Memory") paintings "contain and store energy — the energy I put in.” In contrast, the artist describes how ""Fermata” is a certain musical composition which announces to hold a single tone or chord, so it can sound, or rather breathe.” For Ross, painting is a meditative process. He is fascinated by patterns in nature such as the spiral forms of shells, leaves, butterfly wings, and plant cells. As he tries to interpret the natural ‘lines and curves’ found in nature, he is also exploring how the tones and hues of colour are affected by the mark-making. He writes: “For me, colours are sounding. I look at colours and they sound back. It’s a resonant relationship between me and the colours.”