"I have always followed the regularities of the area only very reluctantly. I was much more interested in regularities of colour, its currents and growths, its materials and structures. The edges of the rectangle often inhibited my responsiveness to its potentials. This made wise restrictive measures necessary, but it occasionally also meant the narrowing of my expressive powers. I longed for the expansive space, the third, forth, fifth – upwards, to the side, even backwards, but without illusionist depth". Gerhard Hoehme wrote in a text in 1957 on the occasion of his exhibition at Galerie 22 in Düsseldorf. The artist investigated the inherent characteristics of his painting materials. He layered thick portions of paint, which he scraped off old canvases to create haptic and space expansive objects (Borkenbilder / bark pictures). Regarding the panel picture´s format, he searched new liberty and autonomy: Hoehme interpreted the picture as an openended energetic field that expands into its surroundings. Resultant he developed irregular contoured canvases, what is seen as an early anticipation of the „shaped canvases“. He experimented with plastic tubes, threads and wires to let them grow out of the canvas or which he bundled into tube sculptures.