C.O. PaeffgenGermany

C.O. Paeffgen (b. 1933 in Cologne, DE, † 2019 in Cologne, DE) as an artist and as a person, was a loner who preferred to go his own way. As a real eccentric, he jumped back and forth between the strangest and most wonderful objects and decorated them with black felt-tip pen, wire, imagination and frivolity into unmistakable works of art.

Paeffgen has become known through wrappings of everyday objects and borders around images published in newspapers. His artistic practices can be seen as unparalleled approaches to archiving. Throughout the past 30 years, he created a world of news, a journal on canvasses, consisting of headlines, newsflashes, and text excerpts. Words and outcries surrounded by intense colors seek attention without trying too hard. Paeffgen’s headlines are replete with plain yet elegant jokes and analogue versions of clickbaiting in its best form.

Paffgen’s works have been featured in numerous solo exhibitions, with significant shows that include a retrospective at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne in 1999. His art has been part of key group exhibitions, such as at Galerie Marc Jancou in New York (1979) and the Kunsthalle Bielefeld (2008). His works are held in several important public and private collections, including the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Berlin.