Monika Buch (Valencia, Spain,1936; now living in Utrecht, The Netherlands), was the first and only Spaniard to study at the HfG of Ulm (Gestaltung School or Ulm School of Design), an institution conceived as heir of the revolutionary Bauhaus. Monika Buch, born in a German family, spent her childhood between Germany and Spain, where her family moved to avoid the Civil War and the Second World War, respectively.

In 1956, after finishing her studies at the German School in Barcelona, her mother presented her a press clipping with an article from “Die Zeit” about the inauguration of Max Bill’s new building for the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG), which prompted her to travel to the German city of Ulm and study at that school between 1956 and 1958.
After her time in Ulm, she moved to Utrecht where she studied Pedagogy and Child Psychology. For two years she focused her activity in the field of toy design in the Dutch factory ADO, but from 1972 she devoted herself exclusively to her artistic work, with research focused on the form-color interrelation. The exhibition that Rafael Ortiz Gallery now dedicates to Monika Buch consists of a selection of pieces made by Buch in that period, between 1973 and 1979.

Her work is based on what she learned at HfG. In the artist’s own words: “I always start from an idea or a question that I want to solve. I’m interested in perception: what I see and why, that’s why I like to work on a subject with variations. Aesthetics are important but many times are secondary. A work can be beautiful or pleasant to see, but for me it has to have something more, something interesting that attracts your attention or that attracts your gaze every time and makes you want to discover what it is that worries you”.