Alexander Gockel

By Ken Hall

Alexander Gockel is an artist who can't sit still. The German-born painter exhibits a fluidity of color, character and setting in his work, but one canvas may not be dry before he begins work on another.

In fact, Gockel regularly works on four paintings at once. All are displayed before him and he moves from one to the next to the next and back again. "With my artwork, I cannot get a feeling or idea and keep it for weeks," he said. "I work on it and don't stop. I leave the studio only when it's finished."

Gockel believes in having a concept and keeping it simple. "And since I like to perform," he said, "it was decided early in my career that I would be an artist who paints live." So he started participating in more art shows, where he painted at breakneck speed and interacted with the audience.

Gockel has created as many as 400 originals in a year -- that's more than a painting a day! "Painting is like tennis," he said. "You have to practice a lot and you have to practice every day." He prefers oils and acrylics on canvas, but occasionally works in aquarelles or transparent color.

With expressive use of rich, primary colors, Gockel has crafted a unique style that incorporates fluid strokes on large white canvas backgrounds, done in the manner of an "action painting." Over the last ten years, over two million of his open-edition prints have sold in the U.S. market alone. Basketball legend Michael Jordan owns several original Gockel paintings.

From his earliest days, Gockel was fascinated by the magic of colors on paper. Born in the coal mining town of Luding-hausen, Germany, in 1952, he began sketching at an early age. His father, a designer, bought him a watercolor set when he was four.

While the surroundings were dark and somewhat grim, the boy's father knew that, through art, his son could put his dreams and visions on paper. His wife was a craftsperson who also encouraged Alexander. By age eight, he had his first work of art released by a German publisher.

At sixteen, Gockel took a job in the coal mines and began thinking about a career as an engineer. But when the mining industry collapsed, the resulting widespread unemployment forced him into the Army, where he spent about two-and-a-half years.

After his discharge, Gockel studied typography and graphic design at the Polytechnic Institute in Munster, Germany, where he specialized in silkscreens and lithographs. He might not have attended college at all were it not for his admiring wife, Ingrid, who sent representative samples of his work to the school while her husband was still in the military.

Thanks to her efforts (of which he was completely unaware), Gockel was accepted into the school. His transition from the life of a soldier to one of an aspiring artist was a seamless one. ""It was Ingrid who inspired me to pursue art and design as a career choice," he said.

In 1980, Gockel began teaching typography and graphic design at his alma mater, the Polytechnic Institute. That lasted four years, but before he left he started his own publishing company called Avant Art, where he still publishes his own prints and limited-edition silkscreens. Ingrid handles the financial end of the business. Avant Art sells open-edition prints in 50 countries, not counting the U.S.

By the mid-'80s, now a full-time artist, Gockel set out for England and the United States, where his work was shown and well received. He met with A.D. Lines in Bridgeport, Conn., which agreed to handle his open-edition prints. Later, MAC Fine Art, based in Dania Beach, Fla., became the exclusive publisher of his limited-editions on canvas, as well as the U.S. distributor of his original paintings.

In his travels, Gockel has had the opportunity to meet Salvador Dali and Antonio Tapies. He's studied all the Old Masters, but the artists who had the greatest influence on his style are Miro, Dali and Kandinsky. Of the American artists, he greatly admires Jackson Pollock and Jasper Johns.

"In my paintings, I try to combine the language of the Old Masters with the language of what we have developed today," Gockel said. "The strong use of color and movement in the work of the Modern Expressionists is exciting and full of energy -- like my work today."

Gockel draws every day in a sketchbook, which he keeps the way a writer keeps a journal. "When I go on trips to the U.S. or Asia or South America for exhibitions and art events, I can often produce an entire journal of new drawings which become the designs for my paintings and graphics," he said. He currently resides in his native Germany.

To Gockel, art is necessarily a mirror of the world. "Art both influences culture and imitates it," he said. "I am influenced by the colors, symbols, textures, fibers and designs used by different cultures around the world."

After a trip aboard a Caribbean cruise ship, Gockel may incorporate steel drums, palm trees and a tropical palette into his next series of paintings. Or, after a trip to Michigan (and because he's a sports car aficionado), he may create paintings of high-tech, contemporary automobiles.

"Because of my strong use of color," Gockel said, "people get a positive feeling about my work. It's fun and exciting. There is a degree of energy in my brushwork that people can relate to. I like to think of it as work that will 're-charge' your mind every day."

Original paintings by Alexander Gockel retail for between $4,000 and $10,000. Giclees range in price from $750 to $1,800. For more information, call Susan or Simon toll-free at MAC Fine Art, (877) 233-8228.