In Memoriam RUNE MIELDS (1935 – 2026)

It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our artist, Rune Mields. Over nearly fifteen years of working together, a deep bond and genuine closeness developed between us. Her remarkable intelligence — which she herself would always modestly deny — never ceased to fascinate us. She often concealed her deep empathy for others and her sincere interest in people behind an outward reserve. She nurtured her friendships with extraordinary devotion and striking generosity. Openly, she shared her passion for numbers, systems, and beauty, but equally for 1. FC Köln and, of course, for the city she loved so dearly, Cologne. She had a wonderful sense of humor and repeatedly surprised us with her dry wit and sharp repartee. Her pride, her dignity, and her alert, lucid mind remained entirely undiminished until the very end. We will miss her deeply. At the same time, we are grateful that, together with Rune’s family, we will be able to continue caring for and working in service of her artistic legacy.

The Rhineland art scene has lost one of its defining figures. Artist Rune Mields, who had lived in Cologne since the early 1970s, passed away on 27 June 2026 at the age of 91. She died peacefully in her sleep on Saturday. For decades, Rune Mields profoundly shaped and influenced the Rhineland art scene in particular. With a body of work that seemed almost outside of time and defied clear stylistic categorization, she established a truly singular artistic position. We have lost an artist who was deeply committed to bringing greater awareness to — and strengthening — the role of women in art within an art world that, at the time, was overwhelmingly dominated by men.

For more than sixty years, Rune Mields worked as an independent artist, exploring creation myths, systems of order across cultures, structures, and beauty itself. With unwavering dedication, she continuously examined the essential nature of things and their visual significance — whether in mathematics, physics, philosophy, or music. Questions of space and time, infinity, and humanity’s enduring aspirations gave rise to countless series of paintings and drawings. The clarity of thought and content in her work was always matched by a remarkable clarity of form. Abstraction, linearity, and schematic reduction, most often expressed through a strict limitation to black, white, and shades of grey, became defining characteristics of her artistic language.

And yet, there was always an enduring fascination with beauty — the beauty of simplicity found in prehistoric cave paintings, the beauty of ancient Arabic ornamentation, the beauty of painting and construction in the work of Paolo Uccello from the inquisitive spirit of the Early Renaissance, beauty in the thought and poetry of Novalis, beauty in music ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach to Igor Stravinsky, the beauty of the human body, and the beauty found in the paintings of Henri Matisse. Through reflecting on the structures of the world, Rune Mields consistently created works that stood as harmonies against chaos — as spaces for thought and beauty, opening toward a new infinity.

Rune Mields was born in Münster in 1935. She trained as a bookseller before pursuing her path as a self-taught artist. In 1977, she participated in documenta 6 in Kassel. A visiting professorship at the Berlin University of the Arts and a residency at Villa Massimo shaped the 1980s. From the 1970s through 2025, numerous exhibitions and awards documented and affirmed her remarkable artistic journey.

In accordance with her wishes, Rune Mields will be laid to rest at the Künstler-Nekropole Kassel, affiliated with the Museum für Sepulkralkultur. The grave site was designed by the artist herself in 1992. In 2027, an exhibition jointly planned with Rune Mields during her lifetime will take place at the Kunsthalle Giessen and the Museum Morsbroich. This two-part exhibition will now honor her oeuvre in the form of a retrospective.

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Photo: Rune Mields in her studio, 2015, Portrait by Michael Böttcher, Courtesy Galerie Andreae, Bonn.