WARMENHOVEN & VENDERBOS Blog » Germany

Wade Guyton | conceptual monochrome paintings

W&V — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:01:20 +0000

Currently the museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany is showing an interesting exhibition from work of American artist Wade Guyton. The monochrome planes, stripes and bars, which Guyton has recently begun using very often, are computer-generated. The colour black and the letter X have become signature motifs in his work. These newer paintings by Wade herald the modernist motif par excellence: the monochrome. The classical monochromes by Alexander Rodchenko or Robert Ryman had already served to reduce painting to its essence: color, canvas, and frame. It can be assumed that Guyton’s monochrome bars, even when they appear in larger complexes, have a similar objective to that of Rodchenko and Ryman, namely self-reflective painting. However where other artists have used brushes, light, sounds or even metaphors to paint, Wade started (ab) using an inkjet printer. As medium he started out with paper but moved to canvas. He prints the elementary geometric forms he uses over and over again by feeding the canvas into the printer again and again. This sometimes causes the print head to lose grip. These errors in the printing process produce elisions and streaks.

Guyton follows a strict plan; it is for instance important that the dimensions of each canvas be adapted to the technical details and the space in question. And although the width of all the artist’s works produced on the printer is the same, the length is oriented to the architecture of the exhibition room.

The exhibition in the museum Ludwig is curated by Dr. Julia Friedrich and will run until 22-08-2010

Photos Wade Guyton Maurice Cox | museum Ludwig

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Football Meets Fashion and lifestyle

W&V — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:04:56 +0000

Sepp Magazine is an exercise by FIFA in combining fashion and lifestyle with football. It Takes its name from outgoing FIFA President Sepp Blatter. The Magazine explores the issues surrounding football, fashion, life and the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. This is done in a surprisingly insightful way by some of the best photographers and art directors. Sepp Magazine is edited by Markus Ebner and fashion journalist Godfrey Deeny. It is art directed by the talented Mirko Borsche.

For the current installment of Sepp, which hit newsstands this week, Ebner marshaled several fashion luminaries. Ellen von Unwerth contributes photographs of Germany’s rising soccer stars. Karl Lagerfeld dreams—and draws—himself into the game in a series of idiosyncratic watercolors where he drew some of his favorite stars, like Ribery, Kaka and Wayne Rooney, Argentine icon Maradona is rendered by Anna Sui and Clinique collaborator Hiroshi Tanabe. Henrique Gendre portraits models from Brazil posing in the country’s playing colors, as well as architectural photographs of host nation South Africa’s new stadiums and some of the world’s greatest fashion designers created their very own football uniforms. It seems that among them there is also a mini dress football outfit for the national football team of The Netherlands (Oranje). These designer football outfits where shot by Rene Habermacher for this issue.

On paper, high fashion and football are unlikely companions but the team behind Sepp Magazine have turned this project into a fascinating and engaging ultra-glossy biennial.

Photos: Sepp Magazine and Nowness | Verlag Neunundsechzig | FIFA World Cup in South Africa

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Juergen Teller: Zimmermann a surreal fashion fairy tale

W&V — Wed, 26 May 2010 09:49:41 +0000

Juergen Teller, the legendary German photographer who joined fashion and art in his work on a genius way, will release on the 31St of Mai 2010 his latest photography book called: “Zimmerman”. This book will feature his new photo series which documents his muse the supermodel Raquel Zimmermann engaging in family events and interacting with Teller’s native environment in Bubenreuth, Southern Germany. Holding true to his signature snapshot aesthetic while nonetheless managing to construct what he describes as a “surreal fairy tale”, a narrative akin in style to the Gothic and dramatic Brothers Grimm fairy tales.
Teller captures Zimmermann in a state of seeming abandon, in the woods or lying semi-nude on the family table during a meal. It are suggestive images, elegantly dressed up with a touch of eroticism, and which tell a fashion tale which is going beyond conventional glamour.

Photos: Juergen Teller | Zimmermann (Steidl)

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Kinetic Sculpture, metaphorical translation of the process of form-finding

W&V — Mon, 24 May 2010 11:09:12 +0000

The Kinetic Sculpture by Art+Com is a fascinating metaphorical translation of the process of form-finding in art and design. The interplay of mechanical and electronic components creates a dynamic art piece reflecting the precise exchange between a great number of individual elements and the single, coherent picture that emerges from them.714 metal spheres, hanging from thin steel wires attached to individually-controlled stepper motors and covering the area of six square meters, animate a seven minute long mechatronic narrative. In the beginning, moving chaotically, then evolving to several competing forms that eventually resolve to the finished object, the Kinetic Sculpture creates an artistic visualisation of the process of form-finding in different variations.

The installation is on display in the BMW museum, Munich, Germany.

Video and Photos: Art+Com | BMW Museum, Munich

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Herman and Nicole Daled collection: Less is more

W&V — Mon, 10 May 2010 12:29:58 +0000

Marcel Broodthaers, La robe de maria, mixed media on canvas
120 x 100 x 12 cm
Daled collection

Lawrence Weiner, a bit of matter and a little bit more
language + the materials referred to
original cardboard stencil, 43,5 x 57,5 cm
Daled collection

Belgian collector couple Herman and Nicole Daled refuse to perceive art as decoration. They are considering the concept behind a piece of art more important than its realization and approach art in a fundamentally different way: basis for their activities are their relationships and conversations with artists. in keeping with the aim of conceptual art that places the intellectual content of a work above its realisation, they consider themselves not collectors but communicators and producers: they provide artists with the opportunity to also realise works outside of established market mechanisms. their intense engagement with conceptual art, one of the most important movements in recent art history, goes far beyond usual collecting practices. this is not only apparent in the actual works, but also in the meticulously archived documents containing actions and works.

James Lee Byars, Robe pour cinq personnes
Textile fabrics
dimensions variable
Daled collection

One of the most important influences for Herman and Nicole Daled was Marcel Broodthaers; more than 80 of his works are in their collection. moreover, the collection holds several works by Daniel Buren, Dan Graham, On Kawara, Sol Lewitt, Niele Toroni, Lawrence Weiner, Cy Twombly and many more.

Less is more is a very inspiring exhibition from the amazing personal conceptual art collection and archives of Herman and Nicole Daled. It will feature pictures, objects, paintings and concepts.The exhibition concentrates on the period between 1966 and 1978, thereby providing a lively portrait of the progressive, international art scene at that time. It will run until the 25Th of July 2010 at the Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany.

On Kawara, Today Series: Oct. 31, 1971.
Oil on Canvas, 20,5 x 25,5 cm.
Daled Collection

On Kawara, I got up
Series of 108 postcards sent to Herman Daled daily between may 18 and september 3
14 x 9 cm
Daled collection

Niele Toroni, Empreintes de pinceau N° 50 répétées à intervalles réguliers de 30 cm
Paint on canvas, 100 x 100 cm.
Daled Collection

Daniel Buren, untitled
12 paintings (acrylic on cloth)
installation view Haus der Kunst
Daled Collection

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Tobias Rehberger – flat: Posters, Poster Concepts and Wall Paintings

W&V — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 11:50:39 +0000

The conceptual artist Tobias Rehberger is generally known for his 3D installations, this exhibition of 2D work marks a departure for the German artist; it is the first time he shows his wall-based posters and paintings at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst In Frankfurt, The city where he is also professor of sculpture at the Städelschule.

The selection of works in the exhibition will range from posters the artist designed of his own accord for products of personal significance to him – whether sportswear manufacturer “Adidas” or the farmer “Bauer Mann” in the Frankfurt Kleinmarkthalle – to his wild postings as integral elements of exhibitions.

Rehberger has replicated the logos exactly rather than subverting them by altering the iconography of the brands or products. He takes the view that these images stand as his own works of art simply because he has chosen to create them and believes that it is his aesthetic choice, and the subsequent materialisation and destination of the work, that prevents the posters from being viewed as marketing or advertising. This idea is one that Rehberger has explored repeatedly, notably with his installation of a working cafeteria as his contribution to the 2009 Venice Biennale, which won the Golden Lion Award.

As with these posters, he was posing the question “what can be considered art and why?”

The exhibition in the Museum für Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt will run until the 2nd of May, 2010

Photo top: Tobias Rehberger, “Was Du liebst, bringt dich auch zum Weinen”, Detail Mixed Media, Venice Biennale 2009 Courtesy: Galerie Neugerriemschneider Berlin; shot by: Wolfgang Günzel, Offenbach | Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt

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Juergen Teller Go-Sees interview

W&V — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:03:33 +0000

An already older but still interesting video interview with photographer Juergen Teller for TateShots, the Youtube channel of the Tate Modern Art gallery.
Juergen Teller turned his lens on the fashion industry with his Go-Sees series. Weary of the hype generated by model agencies desperate to sell him the ‘next big thing’, he decided to take the picture of every girl that came to see him on the doorstep of his studio. In this interview, Teller tells Tateshots how the resulting photographs expose the troubling power of the male photographer.

Photos: Juergen Teller | Source and video: the Youtube channel of the Tate Modern Art gallery | TateShots

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Ana Torfs exhibition Album Tracks A

W&V — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:55:55 +0000

The work of the Belgian visual artist Ana Torfs consists of various installations with slide projections, photo series, a web project, a feature film and several publications. Torfs has dealt, among others, with questions such as perception, representation and the construction of images and identity. She has also focused on the tension between text and image, between reading and visualising and – in a larger sense – between the fabricated and the real. Above all her work creates a strong visual experience.

With five large-format slide projections, several photo series, and a song project for the Internet, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein- Westfalen K21 presents the first museum-based overview of the work of Ana Torfs. Representation and visualisation, reality and fiction form the cornerstones of Ana Torfs’ installations which consist of projected images (usually black and white slides) and texts. In precisely choreographed audiovisual constellations Torfs brings to life literary, historical and political material.

In these projects the artist works with actors who embody their roles in a demonstratively matter-of-fact and functional way. Documents on Joan d’Arc, a famous one act play by the symbolist poet Maurice Maeterlinck but also testimonies from Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht’s murder trial serve as starting points for room-filling installations such as “Du mentir-faux” (About Lying Falsehood), 2000, “The Intruder”, 2004, or “Anatomy”, 2006. Ana Torfs has been practising and developing her method of subtly dissecting and superimposing places, people, voices and atmospheres for over fifteen years. In doing so, she draws from the repertoire of dramatic, photographic and cinematic techniques.

Apart from a selection of earlier works, the recently completed slide installation “Displacement” (2009) will be shown for the first time at K21.

In the below video by Ralph Goertz from the Institut für Kunstdokumentation und Szenografie, Torfs introduces the work on her exhibition at K21.

The Exhibition called Album/Tracks A at the K21, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf will run until the 18Th of July, 2010.

Photos Ana Torfs | K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen | Video by Ralph Goertz, Institut für Kunstdokumentation und Szenografie

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Spencer Tunick major installations

W&V — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:38:27 +0000

The monumental installations created by ,the New York based artist, Spencer Tunick are an inspiring and interesting dialogue between the naked human body and the public spaces they are placed in. But, at the same time, they are also a dialogue between the individual human and the larger group. By taking pictures of hundreds and sometimes thousands of naked bodies at specific locations he transforms human individuals to sculptural objects. By doing this he shows and opens a new point of view or perception of humans, nature and architecture.

In his early work he focussed more on individual nude bodies or small groups. This made these works more intimate compared to the massive installations for which he is now known. His work can be considered as a crossover between an installation and a performance.

Spencer Tunick:
“A body is a living entity. It represents life, freedom, sensuality, and it is a mechanism to carry out our thoughts. A body is always beautiful to me. It depends on the individual work and what I do with it and what kind of idea lies behind it — if age matters or not. But in my group works, the only difference is how far people can go if it rains, snows etc.”

On March 1st, 2010 he created his latest work. Tunick set up a series of installations titled “The Base” on the Sydney Opera House Forecourt and inside the Opera House. These installations were carried out as part of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and were Tunick’s first large-scale installation in Sydney, with over 5,200 participants.

In the below video by Ralph Goertz, Spencer Tunick was followed by the Institut für Kunstdokumentation und Szenografie during the creation of his installation at the Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf in 2006.

Photos top Spencer Tunick | Photo centre Reuters | Photo bottom Wood/Getty | Video by Ralph Goertz, Institut für Kunstdokumentation und Szenografie

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Robert Mapplethorpe retrospective

W&V — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:50:36 +0000

The NRW Forum in Düsseldorf has organised a major retrospective of Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs. Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) dominated photography in the late twentieth century and paved the way for the recognition of photography as an art form in its own right. Both during his life and since his death, Mapplethorpe’s work has been the subject of much controversial debate.His radical portrayals of nudity and sexual acts were always controversial; some of his photos caused a stir and frequently resulted in protests outside exhibitions. Above all, Robert Mapplethorpe developed his own photographic style that paid homage to the ideals of perfection and form.

‘I look for the perfection of form. I do this in portraits, in photographs of penises, in photographs of flowers.’

The fact that the photographs are displayed on snow-white walls underpins this view of his work and consciously moves away from the coy Boudoir-style presentation of his photographs on lilac and purple walls a dominant feature of exhibitions of Mapplethorpe’s work for many years and opens up the work to a more concept-based, minimalist view of things.

The exhibition in the NRW Forum covers all areas of Mapplethorpe’s work, from portraits and self-portraits, homosexuality, nudes, flowers and the quintessence of his oeuvre the photographic images of sculptures, including early Polaroids. It will run until 15 August 2010.

Trailer of the film Robert Mapplethorpe “Shapes” by Ralph Goertz | IKS-Medienarchiv

Top photo: Robert Mapplethorpe at his Whitney Retrospective 1988 by Jonathan Becker, Vanity Fair

Photos by Robert Mapplethorpe | Top Photo by Jonathan Becker, Vanity Fair | Video by Ralph Goertz

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