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Hauser & Wirth Savile Row: Isa Genzken - 15 Nov 2012 to 12 Jan 2013 Current Exhibition |
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� Isa Genzken. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Photo: Stefan Alternburger Photography Z�rich |
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Isa Genzken Hauser & Wirth London, Savile Row 15 November 2012 – 12 January 2013 Opening: Wednesday 14 November 6 – 8 pm 'I have always said that with any sculpture you have to be able to say, although this is not a ready-made, it could be one. That's what a sculpture has to look like. It must have a certain relation to reality' Isa Genzken in conversation with Wolfgang Tillmans Inspired by the stark severity of modernist architecture and the chaotic energy of the city, just as much as by art history, the aesthetics of the great American artists of the Sixties and pop culture, Isa Genzken's work is continuously looking around itself, translating into three-dimensional form the way that art, architecture, design and media affects the experience of urban life. From 15 November, Genzken will present an exhibition of new and recent works at Hauser & Wirth's Savile Row gallery. Genzken's totemic columns, pedestal works and collages combine disparate aspects from her many sources in seemingly nonsensical, yet harmonious sculptural compilations. The bust of Nefertiti, an ancient icon of feminine beauty, is one of the most well-known and historically significant sculptures. In Genzken's new series of sculptures, she appropriates plaster reproductions of this bust, which the artist first saw at the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, gives them sunglasses and places them upon tall, white pedestals. She pairs Nefertiti with a reproduction of the Renaissance icon of feminine beauty, the Mona Lisa, whose famous portrait leans against the foot of each pedestal. Genzken then overlays her own self-portrait on to the reproduction of Mona Lisa, playfully inserting herself and her own practice into this multimedia exploration of the lineage of feminine beauty and the place of women in art history. Genzken's sculptures are precariously stacked assemblages of potted plants, designer furniture, empty shipping crates and photographs, among other things, arranged with the traditions of modernist sculpture in mind – traditions which are then manipulated by the artist. With this cacophonous array of objects, Genzken undermines the classical notions of sculpture and, in the North Gallery of Savile Row, re-creates the architectural dimensions of the artist's beloved skyscrapers and the riotous colours of the city streets. Devoid of the weightiness and overpowering scale seen in the sculptures of her Minimalist predecessors, these works abandon notions of order and power, allowing the viewer to relate to the works' inherently human qualities of fragility and vulnerability. Both sculpture and photography combine and overlap in Genzken's collages, whose dense surfaces are formed from the materials of the artist's world: magazines, flyers, snapshots of friends, self-portraits and reproduced artworks. Genzken makes use of all surfaces of the gallery, including an on-going series of collages that span the floor of the space, like a pavement down a busy city street. Born in Bad Oldesloe, Germany, Isa Genzken studied at the renowned Kunstakademie Düsseldorf whose faculty at the time included Joseph Beuys, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Benjamin H.D. Buchloh and Gerhard Richter. Genzken had her first major retrospective in 2009. 'Isa Genzken: Open Sesame!' opened at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, England (2009) and travelled to Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany (2009). Other important solo exhibitions include 'Hallelujah', Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin, Germany (2012); Museion Bozen, Bolzano, Italy (2010); 'Ground Zero', Hauser & Wirth London, England (2008); Wiener Secession, Vienna, Austria (2006); Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland (2003) and the major touring exhibition, 'Jeder braucht mindestens ein Fenster', which opened at the Renaissance Society, Chicago IL (1992) and travelled to Portikus, Frankfurt am Main (1992); Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium (1993); and Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany (1993). In 2007, Genzken was chosen to represent her country in the 52nd Venice Biennale. Also in 2007, Genzken's works were featured for the third time in Skulptur Projekte Münster, Munster, Germany. Genzken's work has also been included in three Documenta exhibitions: documenta XI (2002); documenta IX (1992); and documenta VII (1982). The Museum of Modern Art, New York will host Genzken's first US museum survey, opening in November 2013. Genzken currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany. |
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