In 1948 Reck went on to study at the Landeskunstschule in Hamburg, where he joined the painting class of Alfred Mahlau(1894-1967) which exerted a definite influence on Reck and his work
Reck himself says about Mahlau' From him I received a leaning towards the line and to matt covering large area tempera colour. In his class I for the first time in my life became an outsider.'
Mahlau was a personality of impressive creativity and diversity, as can be seen from his artistic legacy. Apart from that he proved to be an exceptional art professor, who during 22 years of teaching managed to make his students familiar with his definite style without taking away their individuality. It is to be noted that many of his students wrote and painted like Mahlau himself. They too liked working in series. The one unmistakable characteristic brought forth in his students is the connecting of the big and the small side by side in a picture and in the relationship of the everyday and the unusual. Mahlaus work is marked by the imaginative and inventiveness, using close scrutiny and objective presentation.
What Reck learned from Mahlau can be seen in the above quote. However colour quickly gains a greater significance, or better a different meaning in Reck's works. He unlike Mahlau does not use colour to define objects, he uses colour to capture light. Recks paintings are put together with this colourful light. Just like light can let objects become clearer, it can also let them fuse and melt into each other, that is exactly where Recks use of colour aims to go.
In this use of colour Reck has taken after Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Taken from:
(1) Ebda. Kapitel: An meinen Altvater von A.Chr.Reck, Katalog Sfeir-Semler.
(2) see also " Katalog der Hamburgischen Landesbank in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Altonaer Museum; Alfred Mahlau, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen und Grafiken, Hamburg 1990 "
