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Galerie Max Hetzler: Thomas Struth | Group show: Then and Now - 6 Mar 2014 to 19 Apr 2014 Current Exhibition |
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Thomas Struth, Golems Playground, Georgia Tech, Atlanta 2013 2013
chromogenic print 226,6 x 320,0 cm, 235,1 x 328,0 cm framed edition of 6 |
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Thomas Struth Goethestraße 2/3, Berlin-Charlottenburg March 06 – April 19, 2014 Opening: March 06, 6-8 pm Galerie Max Hetzler is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent photographs by Thomas Struth from March 6 until April 19, 2014 at Goethestraße 2/3, Berlin-Charlottenburg. Since 2009 Struth is recurrently photographing places of industrial innovation and scientific progress. Thus he approaches the complexity of technical developments and enables an insight into usually unaccessible areas, which at the same time leave uncertainty about meaning and function of the depicted. Highly evolved machines and devices from research and industry, but also medical facilities are shown on these photographs. The jumbled constructions and entwined wire installations often remain unclear, yet elicit fascination for the possibilities and spectrum of human inventions. The exhibition presents new works from this series such as Table 1, 2013 and Golems Playground, 2013, taken at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. The pictures show facilities of the Humanoid Robotics Lab, where robots with a high level of dexterity and interaction are being designed. Among mathematic formulas and technical equipment one can see toys, musical instruments, backpacks and clothes. For non-experts it is difficult to distinct between actual work materials and everyday objects. Therefore the rooms remain with a provisional appearance even though an enormous technical output is realised within them. The most recent work, AGLAE, C2RMF, Paris, 2013, shows a particle accelerator at the Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France in Paris which carries out research on the constituent materials and techniques of artworks. The contrast between the technical instrument which approaches towards a centuries-old bronze statue to investigate its texture, brings to mind surgical operations on human beings and leaves behind an awkward feeling of subjection. The most recent group of works was taken last year at Anaheim, California, where Walt Disney inaugurated the first Disneyland in 1955. It allows an insight view into the paragon of western image-making industries. In this scenery, yellow submarines are swimming as a matter of course in front of a replica of the Swiss mountain Matterhorn, canyons and ponds are located in immediate proximity. Similar to earlier photographs, these pictures often show deserted panoramas which appear somehow disconcerting for an amusement park attracting fifteen million visitors per year. Reduced to their outer setting, they unveil their nature as artificial, illusory worlds of papier-mâché. At the same time they refer to the great effort and precision with which these worlds are being staged. The titles, consisting of only one word, for instance Mountain, Canyon or Pond detach the connection to the source of the images and allow further associations. It is not relevant anymore that the scenes were taken in Disneyland, they could have been taken anywhere. These attractions are not distinguished by any cultural reference but by a certain conformity of the places that could exist all over the world. By contrast there are Struth's photographs of urban origin. The backyard view of the St. Petersburg Hotel Kovenskij Pereulok, 2005, or the South Korean city Ulsan 1, 2010, identify the depicted places even though the spectator might not recognize them. They refer to Struth's early city and architecture photographs in which he captures street views and complexes of buildings in a documentary way. The work Moskauer Bahnhof, 2005, is also part of this series, but since it shows people in an almost freezed state we are reminded more of his famous museum photographs. Here and there one can see people and their typical behaviour at certain places and at times recognize oneself among the crowd. Simultaneously, the group exhibition Then and Now with works by Anthony Caro, Barbara Hepworth, Bridget Riley, Edmund de Waal and Rebecca Warren will be inaugurated at the gallery space in Bleibtreustraße 45, Berlin-Charlottenburg. Thomas Struth was born in 1954 in Geldern, lives and works in Berlin. Since 1987, he has been exhibiting regularly at Galerie Max Hetzler. His work was presented in several solo exhibitions, such as Kunsthaus Zürich; Museu Serralves, Porto; Whitechapel Gallery, London; K20, Düsseldorf (2011); Museo del Prado, Madrid (2007); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2003); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Dallas Museum of Art (2002); Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (2000). Currently his work is presented in the solo show Five Works at the Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam until 23 March 2014. Then and Now Anthony Caro, Barbara Hepworth, Bridget Riley, Edmund de Waal, Rebecca Warren Bleibtreustraße 45, Berlin-Charlottenburg March 06 – April 19, 2014 Opening: March 06, 6-8 pm Galerie Max Hetzler is pleased to announce the exhibition Then and Now featuring works by Anthony Caro, Barbara Hepworth, Bridget Riley, Edmund de Waal and Rebecca Warren. Then and Now presents several generations of outstanding British artists who, within their work, deal with abstraction, colour and form. The exhibition is introducing a dialogue between the past and the present in the encounter of sculpture and painting. With the sculptures Flax, 1965, and Table Piece LXXVIII, 1969, Anthony Caro formulates a composition between balance and imbalance. Refraining here from large-size works, Caro eludes the categorisation of monumental sculpture and creates a certain intimacy and individuality. Both works made of steel show a direct physical presence, appear fragile and at the same time captivating. In Table Piece LXXVIII, simply curved metals become a dynamic sculpture which reminds of paper cuts by Matisse. In Flax, Caro combines different found metal elements that he paints in a lurid blue. In positioning the work on the floor and coincidentally including it as a sculptural element, Caro challenges the classic presentation of sculpture – an approach that allows the viewer an immediate experience with the work. Similar to Anthony Caro, Barbara Hepworth is regarded as a leading figure of modern British sculpture. She equally advanced the discourse about concepts of material, surface, form and space that announced minimal art in its completion and contemplative beauty. Menhirs, 1964, implies a form of purity and perfection. The two slim parts are carved out of teak. The work with a sensual composition influenced by primitivism is emblematic for the so called single forms series. Menhirs, is named after ancient standing stones found throughout the world; most numerously in Western Europe. The word Menhir is adopted from the Breton language words: men (stone), and hir (long). During the same year in which she carved the present Menhirs, Barbara Hepworth also formed Two Figures (Menhirs) in slate; owned by the Tate collection. It was amongst the pagan landscapes of St Ives and West Penwith that she discovered these rare megalithic stones and became fascinated by them. Bridget Riley, the only painter in the exhibition is represented by two of her newest stripe paintings. By combining warm colours such as red and orange in both works Rose Light, 2013, and Rose Rise, 2012, Riley approaches a new terrain dissenting from her previous work. The horizontal stripes form an animated rhythm of colours that flow into a dynamic interaction of visual forces. Corresponding to landscape painting in its horizontal direction the work generates instability, on the one hand. On the other hand, it demands an active looking at the pattern, the various phenomena of perception producing a strong effect on the viewer´s eye. Edmund de Waal's work addresses, among others, the subjects of collecting - archiving and including - removing. Recognised as an exceptional ceramist, Edmund de Waal models small unique vessels that form the base of his installations. Carefully composed vitrines create a visual narration and result in a subtle dialogue between tradition and modernity, minimalism and architecture, ideas of repetition and rhythm, informed by his passions for literature and music and suitable for meditative contemplation. The three works Fadensonnen I-II-III, 2014, are inspired by Paul Celan's poems published under the same title in 1968 and based on his investigation of language. Noticing the fine pattern of the irregular ceramics, the viewer experiences an affinity leading to a tactile attraction. Edmund de Waal is also known for his writings; he notably won several literary prizes with The Hare with Amber Eyes depicting the fate of his family in 20th century Europe through a journey starting in Japan where he discovered his uncle's netsuke collection. The exhibited works The Mystic, 2011, and Tony ´67, 2011, by Rebecca Warren feature a rough and clear formality that refers in their abstract language to Anthony Caro. The sculptures made of steel seem to be monumental as well as fragile. In these works Warren creates a distinctive language that highlights the sculptures' physical presence with a subtle touch. Simultaneously, a solo exhibition will be inaugurated with recent photographs by Thomas Struth at the gallery space in Goethestraße 2/3, Berlin-Charlottenburg. Anthony Caro, 1924 born in London, died in 2013. Barbara Hepworth, 1903 born in Wakefield, died in 1975. Bridget Riley, 1931 born in London, lives and works in London. Edmund de Waal, 1964 born in Nottingham, lives and works in London. Rebecca Warren, 1965 born in London, lives and works in London. |
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