 | |||||||||
| Isa Genzken: Nofretete, 2014 Photo Credit: happyfamousartists.com |
Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!
Isa Genzken is one of Germany’s most remarkable artists. Her work has its roots in the medium of sculpture and is characterized by a constantly evolving visual language and the casual use of media. The retrospective offers a framework for Genzken’s unorthodox vision of the world that surrounds us. The exhibition covers topics such as modernity, the human body, portraiture, urban culture and architecture.
“I always wanted to have the courage to do totally crazy, impossible and off-key things.” Isa Genzken, 1994
Isa Genzken (*1948) is one of the most remarkable and radical artists of our time. She has earned international renown with her profound work. Her diverse works represent one of the most important contemporary stances of our time. Her oeuvres are now comprehensively on show in Berlin for the first time. The exhibition presents the broad spectrum of Genzken’s work, from her early films, drawings, ellipsoids and concrete sculptures to complex narrative collages and everyday items integrated into montages. The presentation highlights topics such as modernity, the human body, portraits, city culture and architecture.
As an artist, Isa Genzken is prepared to risk it all in her quest for artistic regeneration. In her radical manner she develops diverse works, which are concerned with the topic of beauty in the sense of the essential and absolute.
Isa Genzken (*1948) is one of the most remarkable and radical artists of our time. She has earned international renown with her profound work. Her diverse works represent one of the most important contemporary stances of our time. Her oeuvres are now comprehensively on show in Berlin for the first time. The exhibition presents the broad spectrum of Genzken’s work, from her early films, drawings, ellipsoids and concrete sculptures to complex narrative collages and everyday items integrated into montages. The presentation highlights topics such as modernity, the human body, portraits, city culture and architecture.
As an artist, Isa Genzken is prepared to risk it all in her quest for artistic regeneration. In her radical manner she develops diverse works, which are concerned with the topic of beauty in the sense of the essential and absolute.
Based on the category of sculpture, her work
distinguishes itself through constantly further developing imagery and
unlimited use of media and materials. In the 1970s, she produced
sculptures designed on the computer, and thereby referred back to
American minimalism and conceptual art. In the long, elegantly slender
wooden sculptures, so-called ellipsoids and hyperbolos, one radical step
followed another: sculptures made from bare plaster or concrete,
collage books, complex narrative assemblages of industrially produced
materials and everyday items, various film formats, photography,
paintings, architectural models and outdoor sculptures.
Her art is playful and sometimes brightly-coloured but anything other than superficial. With her feel for materials and their arrangements she creates pieces that make you think. Her power of innovation and her ideas are rich in autobiographical elements and subtle comments on society, and they serve as a point of reference and source of inspiration for generations of artists.
She describes her way of working with two quotes: “I like to put things together that were previously unconnected. This connection is like a handshake between people.” And: “I love being daring.”
Her art is playful and sometimes brightly-coloured but anything other than superficial. With her feel for materials and their arrangements she creates pieces that make you think. Her power of innovation and her ideas are rich in autobiographical elements and subtle comments on society, and they serve as a point of reference and source of inspiration for generations of artists.
She describes her way of working with two quotes: “I like to put things together that were previously unconnected. This connection is like a handshake between people.” And: “I love being daring.”
Co-organiser
The exhibition was developed in cooperation with the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and has been curated by Beatrix Ruf and Martijn van Nieuwenhuyzen.
The exhibition was developed in cooperation with the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and has been curated by Beatrix Ruf and Martijn van Nieuwenhuyzen.
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Niederkirchner Straße 7
10963 Berlin
Germany
Niederkirchner Straße 7
10963 Berlin
Germany
