Curriculum Vitae Axel Rohlfs

as artist/author, June 2025

Dissertation

Art, algorithm and ambiguity. Aesthetic ambiguity with regard to metacognition based on visual semiotics, visual rhetoric and Gestalt Psychology (2023)

Published on ART-Dok (publication platform for art and visual studies):

About Axel Rohlfs

I, Axel Rohlfs (born 1971 in Bremen), am a painter of concrete art and author of concrete/visual poetry as well as editor and assistant for other representatives of concrete art. I studied architecture, real estate, German and art education in Berlin, Detmold and Bremen and live and work in Bremen and Sürstedt.

In 1991 I began studying architecture at the TU Berlin, where I also took painting courses with Prof. Matthias Koeppel. In 1997 I received my diploma in architecture and from then on I worked as an architect and concrete artist/author in Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Detmold and Bremen. In 2002 I organized the exhibition Lajos Vajda - Endre Bálint (two Hungarian artists with a connection to the Shoah) in the Mü-Terem Galéria, Budapest; the volume schemenata. Künstlerische Strategien einer Konterkarierung von NS-Visualisierungen (Bremen, 2008) was created in the course of my further engagement with the Shoah. Since 2003 I have been an assistant to the artist Prof. Vera Molnar, Paris (co-founder of the artist group GRAV, pioneer of art with the help of the computer in the 1960s). In 2004 I received a scholarship as artist in residence of the Espace de l'art concret in Mouans-Sartoux (Côte d'Azur) with a concluding studio exhibition. In the same year I began to create art editions for other artists such as Hans-Jörg Glattfelder, Eugen Gomringer and Attila Kovács. In 2005 I had my first solo exhibition at the ikkp (institute for constructive art and concrete poetry, Prof. Gomringer) in Rehau. This was followed by numerous exhibitions at home and abroad. So far I have published 18 catalogs of my own concrete art and concrete/visual poetry (see below). All my catalogs can be viewed and downloaded free of charge on my website www.axel-rohlfs.de.

My innovation in concrete art is the reciprocal molding of two partial figures into a double figure: double knots, double meanders, double spirals, etc. are created. The development of the width of a partial figure is based on a numerical sequence, thus avoiding chance or arbitrariness on the part of the artist. The pictures are constructed in the spirit of the Concrete Art Manifesto of 1930. The relationships of partial figure to partial figure, partial figure to double figure and double figure to ground appear unstable; the aim is thus an aesthetic added value of fluctuation of attention, of ambiguity, of simultaneism, in general of “non-identity” (T.W. Adorno). The latter deviance-aesthetic principle can also be identified in my concrete/visual poetry.

My innovations in concrete/visual poetry include:

  • Sign transformations in the clock circle or other graphic structures in combination with semantic-pragmatic sign reutilizations (situationistically speaking “sign turns” / “détournement”),
  • Paradigm parades (words or parts of words are graphically demonstrated in their interchangeability),
  • contrast of different deviance-aesthetic, phenomenologically varying operations.

I see the construction of cognitive structures in the work and in perception/thinking (of the producer and post-producer=recipient) as a common feature of concrete art and concrete poetry: the concrete is this construction of cognitive structures that does not refer to something else, that is concrete; a cognitive structure is ultimately always 'concrete', both in the mind and on the canvas/paper.

Construction “ here means: ‘system’ according to Kant, from which nothing can be taken or added as a whole, i.e. the elimination of arbitrariness and thus of the 19th century cult of genius that is still fashionable today.

These constructed cognitive structures are deviance-aesthetically effective. Deviance-aesthetically effective “ means that the constructed cognitive structures deviate from everyday perception, which is oriented towards uniformity (= ‘natura’). As a result, these constructed cognitive structures offer an aesthetic added value compared to everyday perception. The uniformity of the mirror image according to Lacan (= 'natura') is the principle of the imaginary, the source of guiding and enemy images that influence thought and perception and often have inhumane results in life practice.

I have developed a system of generative deviance aesthetics as a deviation from the uniformity of everyday perception (= 'natura') and documented it with examples of concrete designs in text and image.

The “advertisements” for concept art are also ultimately constructions of deviant aesthetic cognitive structures.

Literature about Axel Rohlfs

  • Aurélie Nemours (2003): Architecte peintre est-ce permis (poem on the work of Axel Rohlfs). In: Rohlfs, Axel (2004): werkbericht (works 1997-2004, forewords: Aurélie Nemours and Eugen Gomringer).
  • Museum Modern Art Hünfeld (2004): 32 Positionen/ Räume (catalog for the group exhibition).
  • Linschinger, Prof. Josef (2004): 50 Quadrat + Kompakt Konstruktiv Konkret” (CD documentation of the group exhibition as part of the 14th Gmunden Symposium 2004).
  • Blum, Jürgen (2005): MOTIVA (catalog for the group exhibition European Concrete and Constructive Art at the Uno building Austria Center Vienna).
  • Eugen Gomringer (2005): Examples of a collector's concept. Essay in the booklet of the 12th colloquium of the Forum Konkrete Kunst Erfurt.
  • Lauter, Marlene/ Weigand, Hans-Georg (2007): Ausgerechnet... Mathematik und Konkrete Kunst (book on the group exhibition at the Museum im Kulturspeicher Würzburg).
  • Open Structure Art Society (OSAS, 2007): Black and White (catalog for the group exhibition at the Vasarely-Muzeum Budapest).
  • Messmer Foundation (2007): The Top 80. international, top-class, concrete-constructive (exhibition catalog of the Messmer Foundation for its first art prize).
  • Museum im Kulturspeicher Würzburg (2008): The Peter C. Ruppert Collection.
  • Open Structure Art Society (OSAS, 2009): Seeking Constructive Concrete Structural 2 (catalog for the group exhibition at the Vasarely-Muzeum Budapest).
  • Dárdai, Zsuzsa (2009): Line - Vonal (catalog for the group exhibition of the Symmetry Festival Budapest).
  • Forum Konkrete Kunst Erfurt (2009): die kunst geht in die stadt. hommage an eine gründergeneration (catalog for the group exhibition).
  • Lehmann, Ingmar: Fibonacci numbers in visual art and literature. In: Der Mathematik-Unterricht (2009, issue 2).
  • Gomringer, Eugen (2010): 100 years of concrete art. Structure and perception.
  • Friedrich Verlag (2014): Art squared (mathematiklehren, issue no. 185)
  • Kunstwelten boesner GmbH holding + innovations (2014): Kunstwelten.

Literature by Axel Rohlfs

(also published online on the website of the German National Library www.dnb.de)

  • “werkbericht” (first volume of concrete art, forewords: Aurelie Nemours and Eugen Gomringer. Bremen, 2004)
  • “The role of art in my existence.” (essay in the booklet of the 12th colloquium of the Forum Konkrete Kunst Erfurt. Erfurt, 2005)
  • “39 Computer-Etudes” (second volume of concrete art. Bremen, 2006)
  • Publication of the text images “er-sie-es” in the anthology “Leidenschafften” by Edition Splitter (Vienna, 2006)
  • “Fugitive Interaction of Form” (third volume of concrete art, foreword: Prof. Eugen Gomringer. Bremen, 2006)
  • “what you see is what you get. werkbericht visueller und konkreter poesie” (first volume of concrete and visual poetry, foreword: Eugen Gomringer. Bremen, 2006)
  • “6 x 6 = 36. 6 numerical series in 6 (de-)figurations” (fourth volume of concrete art, forewords: Dietmar Guderian and Frieder Nake. Bremen, 2007)
  • “First interview with Vera Molnar.” In : Open Structures Art Society (Budapest, 2007): “Vera Molnar.”
  • Publication of “Pedanten und Chaoten” in the anthology of the same name by Edition Splitter (Vienna, 2008)
  • “A model of spatio-temporal narrative analysis, in application to narrative psychograms of the turn of the century 1900” (Bremen, 2009, cf. www.dnb.de)
  • “through. visuelle und konkret poesie” (second volume of concrete and visual poetry, foreword: Eugen Gomringer. Bremen, 2008)
  • “doppelknotenbilder” (fifth volume of concrete art, texts: Eugen Gomringer, Hans-Jörg Glattfelder, Attila Kovács, Dietmar Guderian. Bremen, 2009)
  • "Artistic strategies for counteracting NS visualizations. My triple triptych “schemenata” as an attempt to break with the evidence." (Bremen, 2008)
  • “inventory 2003 - 2009/ inventar 2003 - 2009. 11+ 1 double-figure-series/ 11+ 1 double-figure-series. formally positive version/ formal positive version” resp.
  • “inventory 2003 - 2009/ inventar 2003 - 2009. 11+ 1 double-figure-series/ 11+ 1 double-figure-series. formally negative version/ formal negative version” (sixth volume of concrete art. Bremen, 2009)
  • “... und zum dritten! visuelle und konkrete poesie” (third volume of concrete and visual poetry, forewords: Karl Riha and Eugen Gomringer. Bremen, 2011)
  • “27 reciprocal-topological processes. workbook 2003- 2011” (seventh volume of concrete art. Bremen, 2011)
  • “Depth and surface structure of 66 double knots” (eighth volume of concrete art. Bremen, 2013)
  • “Second interview with Vera Molnar.” In: MUWA (2013): “Vom Sichtbaren zum Lesbaren” (Catalog for the exhibition at MUWA. Graz, 2013. Third interview in “Variation des paramètres d'image”, see below)
  • "es geht weiter... visuelle und konkrete poesie (fourth volume of concrete and visual poetry, forewords: Eugen Gomringer and Anne Thurmann-Jajes. Bremen, 2014)
  • “absentierung von 66 doppelknoten. bildkonstruktionen” (ninth volume of concrete art. Bremen, 2014)
  • "TransAPparency. From construction/ deduction to variation/ induction as TransAPparency/ abduction" (tenth volume of concrete art, foreword: Eugen Gomringer. Bremen 2015)
  • "CT - Color Topology. Constructions and variations of images by Axel Rohlfs" (eleventh volume of concrete art, forewords: Eugen Gomringer and Frieder Nake. Bremen, 2016)
  • “The Art of Fugue in Polyperspectivity” (twelfth volume of concrete art, foreword: Eugen Gomringer. Bremen, 2020)
  • “Produktion und Analyse ästhetischer Ambiguität bildender Kunst” (printed dissertation. Bremen, 2023); also published online on ART-Dok (publication platform for art and visual studies), Heidelberg University Library: www.arthistoricum.net, 2023, under doi: doi.org/10.11588/artdok.00008575
  • "Art, algorithm and ambiguity. Aesthetic ambiguity with regard to metacognition based on visual semiotics, visual rhetoric and Gestalt Psychology" (printed translation and abridgement of the German dissertation. Bremen, 2023); also published online on ART-Dok (publication platform for art and visual studies), Heidelberg University Library: www.arthistoricum.net, 2023, under doi: doi.org/10.11588/artdok.00008576
  • "Variation des paramètres d'image comme esthétique empirique. Mon rôle comme assistant-collectionneur pour Vera Molnar depuis 2003" (three volumes 2017 - 2023, also archived in the French National Library = Bibliothèque Nationale de France/ Paris under FRBNF-No. 45335754). On page 743 you will find a scan of the publication authorization, signed by the artist Vera Molnar herself. The first volume also contains a DVD with an animated film that I made for the artist and a film by Martin Mauritz about an art transport from Bremen to Paris and back.
  • “Knots in knots in nets” (thirteenth volume of concrete art. Bremen, 2024)
  • “Enso?!?!!” (fourteenth volume of concrete art. Bremen, 2024)
  • "Theory of Concretism. Concrete Art, Concrete Poetry and Concrete Design" (in preparation, Bremen, 2025)

Works in public collections

Museum für konkrete Kunst (Ingolstadt), Sammlung Prof. Eugen Gomringer (ikkp Rehau), Sammlung Peter C. Ruppert Konkrete Kunst in Europa nach 1945, Museum im Kulturspeicher, Würzburg, Mondriaanhuis (Amersfoort, Niederlande), Mobile MADI Museum (Budapest, Ungarn), Szépmüvészeti Muzeum Budapest, Kunsthalle Messmer (Riegel am Kaiserstuhl).

Further exhibitions

2003

  • “Europa konkret”, group exhibition Prof. Blum-Kwiatkowski Collection, University Collections Art + Technology, Dresden

2004

  • “50 Quadrat + Kompakt Konstruktiv Konkret”, group exhibition as part of the 14th Gmunden Symposium (Prof. Josef Linschinger)
  • “32 Positionen/ Räume”, group exhibition at the Museum Modern Art Hünfeld

2005

  • “In the beginning was the square”, group exhibition at Art Studio 1, Deinste
  • Solo exhibition at the Institut Francais, Bremen
  • “Sammlerkonzepte”, group exhibition at the Forum Konkrete Kunst Erfurt
  • “Motiva”, group exhibition at the Austria Center Vienna, Vienna

2006

  • Solo exhibition at the Society for Art and Design, Bonn
  • “SupreMADIsm”, group exhibition Mobile MADI Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow
  • Exhibition with Judith Nem's at Galerie La Ligne, Zurich
  • “New artists, new works”, group exhibition at Galerie Emilia Suciu, Ettlingen

2007

  • Art Zurich (Galerie La Ligne).
  • Group exhibition for the 1st art prize for concrete-constructive art of the Messmer Foundation, Riegel (Kaiserstuhl)
  • “Of all things... Mathematics and Concrete Art”, group exhibition at the Museum im Kulturspeicher, Würzburg
  • “Black and White”, group exhibition at the Vasarely-Muzeum Budapest.

2008

  • Solo exhibition at ikkp (institute for constructive art and concrete poetry, Prof. Gomringer), Rehau
  • Group exhibition at Heidrichs Kunsthandlung, Berlin
  • “Gegenstandslos”, group exhibition at the Gesellschaft für Kunst und Gestaltung, Bonn
  • “The weakest link”, group exhibition at Galerie Stedefreund, Berlin

2009

  • “Homage to a founding generation/ 90 years of Bauhaus”, group exhibition Forum Konkrete Kunst Erfurt and Kammerhofgalerie der Stadt Gmunden (Austria)
  • Exhibition with H. J. Glattfelder at the Galerie/Edition Fanal, Basel
  • “Seeking Constructive Concrete Structural 2”, group exhibition at the Vasarely-Muzeum Budapest
  • “Die Kunst geht in die Stadt”, group exhibition at the Forum Konkrete Kunst Erfurt
  • “Line-Vonal”, group exhibition Symmetry Festival, Budapest

2010

  • “100 years of concrete art”, Rehau, group exhibition together with H.J. Glattfelder, M. Mohr, V. Kovacic and others, curator: Prof. Gomringer
  • “10 years Kunsthaus Rehau”, group exhibition at the ikkp, Rehau
  • “Top 80 of Second International André-Evard-Award”, group exhibition at the Kunsthalle Messmer (Riegel am Kaiserstuhl)

2011

  • “Newly unfolded”, group exhibition at the Museum im Kulturspeicher, Würzburg
  • “Homage to a founding generation”, group exhibition at the Institute for New Technical Form, Darmstadt

2012

  • “Schemenata - How Nazi Schemata can be turned into Schemata”, solo exhibition at Rosenak-Haus, Bremen (basement rooms of the former Bremen Synagogue)
  • “Chance as strategy”, group exhibition at the Vasarely-Muzeum Budapest

2013

  • “3rd andré evard prize for concrete-constructive art”, group exhibition at the Kunsthalle Messmer (Riegel am Kaiserstuhl)
  • “Art goes to the city”, group exhibition at ikkp Rehau

2014

  • “Word and Image”, group exhibition at the Vasarely-Muzeum Budapest.
  • "Kunst- Konkret. Homage to a founding generation", Akademiegalerie im Weisbachschen Haus, Plauen