Artcity21 - Blog

Meret Oppenheim, Profil und Ausrufzeichen, 1960

Meret Oppenheim

The mind is androgunous

Meret Oppenheim’s first exhibition at Karma International, Zurich consists of works on paper ranging from ink and pencil drawings to collages, watercolours, etchings and lithographs. The exhibition traces her entire oeuvre: from the 1930’s in Paris until the 1980’s in Carona, Ticino. As a medium, drawing is at the core of Oppenheim’s practice that was to manifest in an immediate and experimental approach. Today her surrealist paper work is an influential role model for a young generation of artists who regards her drawings as a foundation for conceptual practice. 

As a schoolgirl, Oppenheim famously wrote the equation “X=Hase” (X=rabbit) in her journal. Exhibiting her dislike for numbers, she simultaneously produced one of her first surrealist works of art. The sentence was later used in the publication "Le Surréalisme" and reproduced as the etching Das Schulheft, (1973). Oppenheim was an adept printmaker and drew extensively. Before her first painting in 1933, she had already created over 50 drawings. For Oppenheim, drawing allowed experimentation, quick notation, and an ease of mark making, which made it an ideal medium to access the subconscious and intuition – important elements of Oppenheim’s work. 

Born in in 1913 in Berlin, Oppenheim spent most of her youth in Switzerland. She was introduced to many artists at a young age – including Emmy Hennings, Hugo Ball and Hermann Hesse, as well as Irène Zurkinden who took her to Paris as a young woman. Inspired by her father’s interest in Carl Jung, Oppenheim began recording her dreams at the age of fourteen. A series of reoccurring themes are continuously present throughout her work including investigations into the subconscious, humor, her relationship to nature and the universe, in effortless changes of style and method. Living in Paris in the 1930s, Oppenheim met many influential artists of the time, and worked closely with the Surrealist group surrounding André Breton. She returned to Switzerland before the Second World War, which, for Oppenheim, can be seen as marking the beginning of a long artistic crisis. She continued to produce art, but destroyed many works or left them unfinished. According to Oppenheim this crisis did not stem from criticism or a misunderstanding of her work, but rather a feeling of artistic incapacitation – the weight of centuries of discrimination against women resting on her shoulders – leading to an inherent feeling of inferiority. In the 1950’s she broke away from those doubts and created an incredibly rich body of work up until her death in 1985. In Switzerland she acted as a lively and social figure who inspired many generations of artists. Her studio house in Carona was an important meeting point where artists from all over Switzerland gathered with her.

Tino Geiss Stripe #3, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 45 cm

Tino Geiss

TRACE

GALERIE SUPPER, Baden-Baden is pleased to announce its first solo presentation of works by Tino Geiss (*1978, Jena).

An exhibition, set up like a tracking of traces. Two recent groups of works engage in dialogue, completing and contradicting each other. Colorful interiors are reminiscent of painting's emancipation from the authority of illusionistic dipiction. Dynamic tension, abstracted perspektives, and overdrawn or inverted colors refer to multiple art historian ancestors like the Fauves, the Expressionists, and the Cubists. But Tino Geiss goes one step further by not only putting in question formal criteria, but also materiality. He creates his interiors, bouquets, and everyday objects by means of masking tape, which bears traces of paint. Usually constructed as living or working spaces, Geiss' rooms seem enlivened while being devoid of people. The invisble human presence is only indicated by its traces; shifted chairs, tables, piles of paper, a white canvas.

On the other hand: a small selection form the series "Stripes". Proudly, they float before white backgrounds. Being a collector, Geiss keeps and archives single strips of his colored masking tape in order to translate a few of them into the medium of painting.

In his "Grammatology", the French philosopher Jacques Derrida questions the fact whether a trace is actually produced by an origin, or if the idea of the origin rather comes into mind through the existence of the trace in the first place. The way Tino Geiss confuses materialities, points out how illusion and abstraction constitute each other rather than being competitors. The question of origin and temporailty of the process gives way to an ever circling asthetic of the trace. 

Tony Cragg, Willow, 2016, bronze, 85 x 80 x 80 cm

TONY CRAGG

SCULPTURES

Galleri Andersson/Sandström is delighted to present a solo exhibition of new sculptures by Tony Cragg, which will be the seventh exhibition by the artist, at the gallery.

Cragg is one of the world’s most distinguished sculptors and he has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Barnett Newman Foundation Award in 2016, the prestigious Praemium Imperiale Award in 2007, he represented Britain in the 43rd Venice Biennale in 1988 and was the winner of the Turner Prize the same year. He was also the first contemporary artist who exhibited under the pyramid at the Louvre museum in Paris 2011. In 2016 he was made Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II for his service to the visual arts and Anglo-German relations.

Cragg's boundless curiosity and desire to observe the dynamics between ourselves and the material world has resulted in a unique form of expression with great inner means. The sculptures form physical approaches for viewing the world from the outside, methods of searching for new forms and to formulate questions on the world we exist in and observations on our reality. Formerly untried material present new visual experiences and thus new intellectual and emotional understandings. At the beginning of his career he created works of found items such as industrial waste and plastic containers, since then he has continued to work in stone, clay, bronze, glass, wood and various kinds of synthetic materials.

The exhibition presents works that have been made over the last two years, and all of which are clear examples of his diversity. In the work Industrial Nature, it is as if Cragg destroyed a form and then re-assembled its pieces to create tension within its broken entirety.

Cragg has said: “From my point of view, I believe that material is everything. We consists of material and the room we are in consists of material, and so I can’t think of any reality that isn’t material… I think that sculpture is a kind of sensitising activity and that it has a role in being a catalyst that may lead to more sensitive thinking”.

Tony Cragg was born in Liverpool, UK in 1949 and has lived and worked in Wuppertal, Germany since 1977. During the past few years, there have been several important solo exhibitions of Tony Cragg’s work all over the world: MUDAM Luxemburg (2017); Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK (2017); Museo Nacional Havana, Cuba (2017); Von der Heydt, Wuppertal, Germany (2016); The State Hermitage Museum, Russia (2016), Benaki Museums, Athens, Greece (2015); Madison Square Park, New York, (2014), Lembruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany (2013); CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China (2012); The Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, (2011) and Musée du Louvre, Paris (2011). This fall his work are presented at the Teheran Museum of Contemporary Art travelling thereafter travelling to Isfahan Museum of Art and the Sanati Contemporary Arts Museum, Kerman. A forthcoming exhibition at Istanbul Modern opens in December and in May 2018 his works will be featured in the outdoor Park Avenue Malls in New York.

De habilidoso ilustrador a emprendedor exitoso y símbolo de la cultura popular americana,  el  nombre  de  Andy  Warhol  será  siempre  recordado  por  elevar  la  icono-grafía de los productos de consumo de masas a la categoría de las bellas artes.

A  su  modo  de  ver,  una  bebida  de  Cola  o  una  lata  de  tomates  tenían  las  mismas cualidades para estar en un Museo que las pinturas de los grandes maestros de las vanguardias ya que ofrecían al consumidor un placer asequible indiferentemente de su estatus social.

Lo bueno de este país es que Estados Unidos comenzó la tradición donde los consumidores  más  ricos  compran  esencialmente  las  mismas  cosas  que  los  más  pobres. Usted puede estar viendo la televisión y ver Coca-Cola, y usted puede saber que el presidente bebe Coca Cola, Liz Taylor bebe Coca Cola, y sólo pensar, usted puede tomar Coca Cola, también. Una Coca-Cola es una Coca-cola y ninguna cantidad de dinero puede conseguirle una Coca-Cola mejor que la que el vagabundo de la esquina está bebiendo. Todas las Cokes son las mismas y todas las Coca-Cola son buenas.

Warhol en sus motivos no se restringió solamente a objetos de producción industrial sino que abarcó equitativamente retratos de las superestrellas del momento, políticos destacados y la entonces desestimada comunidad gay y transexual en una suerte de democratización artística en la que todos tendrían sus 15 minutos de fama.

Throughout his Contemporary Fine Art odyssey, and very particularly when it comes to what absolutely involves the "Free" heart and soul, Pessoa describes commitment as everything that goes with it, Imagination, playing for keeps, making Art, communicating through Art and going the distance. After Imagination, the two keys to living life full, Passion and Commitment. Heartfelt Passion for his dreams and artistic projects and Commitment to systematic research, aiming at new solutions, new action plans, new artistic, social and public performance. Using the power of his Art in the direction of truth, love and togetherness, Pessoa is well aware that his world is substantially the power to create. His world is the gift that comes directly from Imagination. Imagination changes our views and changes our mind. Changes Art and it can change the World! In Art, perspective first appeared in the Renaissance, as a system for making paintings look more like the real world, incorporating distance as well as size. Gradually the term broadened to refer our mental outlook over time, as well as our visual. Of course, our mental and our visual outlooks are connected through the act of perceptive Imagination. Art is also a metaphor for reality, and just like reality it isn't static, it moves and changes and none of us are able to see the whole thing at any one time. Antonio Pessoa uses his Imagination to connect Art with the outside world through sight, color, texture and meaning. But far from delivering us a universally consistent view of the same old concepts, his rich Contemporary Fine Art highly communicative expression is shaped by his Imagination. Imagination, personal and artistic sustainability, daring to transform ideas into artworks. The contemporary young master dances often with his lover and partner called Imagination. They wouldn't dream of performing their best without recounting the lessons they learn together. One has only to look upon his latest great works of art, beautiful performances in color, concept, aesthetics and visual literature. Imagination is a fascinating system of rules of conduct or methods of practice, synonymous with invention, artistic intuition and intention. Imagination jumps out and its presence challenges the artist to be true to his standards. Imagination lurks in the Studio shadows surrounding every crowning moment, Antonio Pessoa takes it by the hand and spin it around the Art Studio dance floor a couple of times then they become a dance team. Art Action time! Using Imagination consciously is Pessoa's secret to creating the Art of his dreams, the visual literature for his public.Communication. It has little to do with technique and everything to do with creative awareness. This cause and effect relationship is after all the heart and soul of the artist's Contemporary Fine Art new series general concept. The key factor for Antonio Pessoa's latest artistic significant changes, discoveries and progress was his ultimate decision to put himself in the right environment that could not distract him from the creative process he intended. Studio 1 ! Most of the time during the making of these charming artworks he sets aside a reasonable amount of hours in a row totally concentrated in this fascinating artistic challenge.