* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Born in 1952 in Cologne Germany, Detlef Gotzens showed from an early age on that he was inclined towards an artistic career in Life. At the age of fifteen he became an apprentice in the stained glass studio of Jacob Melchior in Cologne where he completed his three year apprenticeship. During that time he was exposed to some of the best known artist in this field which only confirmed his desire to pursue art for the rest of his Life. After working in the field for five years Detlef continued his education with a master’s degree from the guild of Cologne and at the same time study glass technology and design for two full years at the famous Glass College in Rheinbach close to the former German Capital Bonn. He graduated with a Masters degree in 1977.
Detlef explains the work by saying, “Since a very early age I was always drawn to Images, pictures, forms, lines and color, and instinctively felt very comfortable looking at art especially paintings with a sense of wonder and curiosity. I’m constantly in the process to find a visual Language that seem to be always changing from one work to the next and every piece is leading me to another place, where I’m wondering again what is behind the next painting or sculpture I’m making? It feels like a never ending winding track. I also pursue more than one direction in my paintings because it interest’s me how I react to for example using landscape as a point of departure, where I always use the same landscape view from photographs I take outside my studio during different times of the Year as well as various times of the Day. I’m equally interested in Abstraction and the challenges that lay within it as well as Painting Faces of People that are important to me, for example Musicians that I listen to.
