biography The Museum of Modern Art anthropology museums. These dry and porous plaster New York objects have a fossil-like quality that gives them a false I1!bruary 13-April 3, 1988 authenticity, creating a tension between nature and cul- Born Schwerte, West Germany ture. Her use of the vitrine. a container commonly used November 13, 1952 in museums to protect very old or fragile objects, further invests the forms with archaeological significance and Resides in Cologne complicates their address as contemporary sculptures.

For this installation Trockel has also education assembled a body of drawings, executed from 1982 to Werkkunstschule KOln, 1974-78 - the present, that is largely the result of her research on ~ the evolution of the human species. These drawings do not constitute a formal series, but can be viewed as selected individual exhibitions u continuing entries into a journal that has spanned the 1987 Galerie Tanit, Munich artist's career. Her compositions range from quickly e sketched lines or rapid brushstrokes that capture the es- 1986 Monika SprOth Galerie. Cologne +-J sence of a thought to carefully rendered images that in- corporate traditional techniques. These works are drawn Galerie Friedrich, Bern Bonn* Often compared to the ephemeral drawings and water- ru colors of Beuys, Trockel's works on paper also bring to 1984 Galerie Ascan Crone, Hamburg' mind the dreamlike images of Odilon Redon and whimsi- E cal fantasies of Paul Klee. Galerie 5tampa, Basel OJ l/) Trockel's affinities to earlier twentieth- Monika Spruth Galerie, Cologne century artists notwithstanding, her art is firmly grounded in the eighties. In a work on graph paper she e silkscreened fragments of the word "vendetta" in a re- selected group exhibitions peated fashion. Although not unmindful of the word's 1987 Stadtische Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf; •• highly charged definition, the artist was primarily at- Columbia University, Leo Castelli &It tracted to the visual presence of the letters. A word so Gallery, Sonnabend Gallery, New York manipulated can be likened to an emptied vessel. Here, Similia/Dissimilia' as in much of Trockel's diverse work, it remains for the ti viewer to supply the meaning. The Tate Gallery, London (II Art from Europe* Jennifer Wells .~ Curatorial Assistant Pat Hearn Gallery, New York Department of Painting and Sculpture 1986 Arnhem, The Netherlands e Sonsbeek 86' Q. The Sixth Biennale of Sydney Origins, Originality + Beyond'

1985 Museum moderner Kunst, Vienna Kunst mit Eigen-Sinn*

Museum Ludwig, Cologne Herbstsalon

Monika Spruth Galerie, Cologne Eau de Cologne'

selected bibliography Koether, Jutta. "Interview with Rosemarie Trockel." Flash Art (Milan), no. 134 (May 1987), pp. 40-42

5chmidt-Wulffen, 5tephen. "Rosemarie Trockel." Flash Art (Milan), no. 132 (February/March 1987), p. 111

Spector, Nancy. "Pat Hearn Group Exhibition." Artscribe International (London), no. 67 (January/February 1988), pp. 69-70

Untitled. 1987. Silkscreen on graph *The exhibition was accompanied by a 8 10" (20.5 25.5 paper. x x em). catalogue Detail of Untitled. 1987. Plaster. Courtesy Monika Spruth Galerie. : Courtesy Monika SprOth Galerie. Cologne Copyright © 1988 The Museum of Modern Art. New York Cologne Iprojects . DeSigned to present recent Wo k b Irosemarie trockel contemporary artists. the ne r ~ Rosemarie Trockel of West Germany is book. In a knitted diptych the pattern of one panel is series has been based on the %~roJe~s one of the few contemporary European women artists comprised of repeated rows of the Playboy bunny; the onqma! projects exhibitions w~~~m s whose work has received exposure in the United States. pattern of the other, the virgin-wool logo. The implica- were held from 1971to 1982 'Th IC . ....Highly original and idiosyncratic, her art eludes categor- tions are numerous. Like Haim Steinbach, Jeff Koons, presented are chosen by the' e ~rtlSts ization. She prefers to work concurrently in a variety of and Annette Lemieux, whose art hinges upon the trans- em of all the Museum's curatoriamld ers mediums, and has treated a broad range of forms and formation of an object's content, Trockel provides us m ts i . epart- themes in drawings, paintings, sculptures, fabric pieces, .en s In a process Involving an aetiv with images without explication. dialogue and close critical scrutiny 0; nd installations. Trockel acknowledges Sigmar Polke new dev.elopments in the visual arts and the late Joseph Beuys as important influences, Since the early eighties Trockel has and resonances of their work are apparent through- The prOjects series is made possible'b worked primarily on paper, and it is in this medium that generous grants from the National y out her oeuvre. she develops the ideas that later find their way into her Endowment for the Arts the L sculpted, painted, and knitted pieces. The motif of the dat i ,annan Trockel's themes stem from a variety of Foun auon, and J. P. Morgan & Co vessel, an essentially feminine form that connotes recep- Incorporated, . sources. Many derive from her investigations of the place tion, recurs throughout the drawings in myriad guises, of the woman artist in what historically has been a male- from the mysteriously fantastic to the frankly banal. The oriented art world. Some of her work overtly alludes to form of this container easily evolves into other objects. the status and role of women-"the weaker party," as Some, such as animal or human heads and skulls, are im- the artist describes them-in society at large. The oven mediately recognizable; others have more amorphous that figures prominently in the present installation, for forms and elusive identities. In one group of spray- example, brings to mind traditional images of women as painted canvases and conventionally rendered drawings housewives. Trockel's recent knitted pieces, which are from 1984 Trocke!'s imagery consisted largely of perfume fashioned of machine-woven fabric and stretched and bottles as seductive and provocative as those featured in mounted like canvas, further evidence the artist's subtle advertising campaigns, which raised socioeconomic is- feminist voice. Here Trockel manipulates a traditionally sues. Trockel's exploration of the form and concept of handcrafted medium to challenge received notions the vessel has also encompassed sculpture. The vessel has about what is typically designated as "women's work," taken on numerous identities in this medium, including tall, phallic vaseswith openings, suggestive of eyes, that The meaning of Trockel's art is not, render the object useless as a container and imbue it however, presented in simple, straightforward terms. It is with a strange, human quality. As part of Trockel's strat- rather the result of an intricate visual strategy whereby egy, meaning is again open to interpretation. the combination of seemingly unrelated images elicits multiple associations that reverberate on aesthetic, The sculptures in the present exhibition social, political, and art-historical levels. In all of her have an eerie and compelling presence. While they recall mediums, Trockel frequently creates provocative juxtapo- earlier work in form and medium, they signal a new di- sitions, grouping diverse objects whose meanings then rection that has developed out of the artist's interest in become contingent upon one another. In one drawing a evolution and the origin of the human species. In some human skull in silhouette rests atop a monkey's head; in of the pieces presented here Trockel has replicated arti- another an apelike creature appears to be reading a facts she has seen in reproduction or in archaeology and

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Untitled. 1984. Synthetic polymer paint and ink on graph paper. 11 x 8" (27.9 x 20.3 em). The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Detail of Untitled. 1987. Mixed • mediums. Courtesy Monika Spruth Galerie, Cologne