Press Release | balzer projects,

Lilly Keller | Erkenntnis dunkelt Farbe 13 June to 25 July 2015

12 June, 18-20h: Vernissage 13 June, 15-17h: Tea with Lilly Keller 18 June, 10h-12.30h: ART Week Brunch with Lilly Keller 28 June, 15-18h: Reading, Book Signing and Artist Talk with Lilly Keller, Fredi Lerch (Author) und Josef Felix Müller (publisher) with Apéro. Lilly Keller. Künstlerin. Ein literarisches Porträt, (Vexer Verlag, St. Gallen, 2015)

Coming to terms with Lilly Keller’s (*1929) oeuvre or putting her into art historical categories seems almost impossible and would not do justice to her wide-ranging, multifarious and highly creative work. Her artistic production which spans over more than six decades, is full of new beginnings and can only be grasped if dissolution of boundaries and continuous re- invention are seen as a principle of her art. The will to experiment and the courage to leave the known behind in order to test her way into new forms of artistic expression and materials, is what makes Lilly Keller an absolutely exceptional artist and personality.

Lilly Keller has always been at the center of the artistic scene and has become a star within it, however, has gained relatively little attention by curators and art historians. Despite having been one of the earliest artist of her generation who was exhibited internationally in London and Tokyo, her exceptional contribution to the Biennale de Tapisserie in Lausanne and, above all, her central role in the art scene of in the 50s, 60s and 70s around figures like Jean Tinguely, Daniel Spoerri, Bernhard Luginbühl, Herbert Destel, , Meret Oppenheim, and even Sam Francis (who was a fervent supporter of her), Lilly Keller has never reached the fame and publicity of some of her peers. Probably, because of her unwillingness to reduce her art to recognizable and identifiable patterns and her constant drive to start all over again, as Christian Jacquet maintains: “Lilly has become a bit of the victim of her own paths […] She stood aside of trends […]. Aside, not in artistic quality, on the contrary. She wasn’t allowed to swim with the stream of the so called important. One can regret that, or one can say, ‘Lilly has her own qualities’. Those who want to explore them, and that one must do, have no problems with that.”

A reason for her elusiveness is Lilly Keller’s openness to new materials, media and forms of expression. This characterizes her whole artistic career. Having started an education in art design under teachers such as Ernst Keller and Johannes Itten in 1949 at the Zurich University of Arts, she soon moved to Berne, where she began to experiment with free expressive paintings. Owing a lot to the American abstract expressionist, Sam Francis, whom she met in 1955, Keller’s painting always showed close affinities to .

In 1953, Keller started to experiment with tapestry to “tame her wild painting”, as she puts it herself. Intrigued by the clarity, precision and accuracy of the weaving, tapestry began to gain central importance to her in the 60s and remained key to her art until 1983, when her engagement with tapestry came to a sudden end.

Besides her paintings, tapestries, installations, and collages, the production of books resembling small sculptures and often employing the technique of collage, has occupied her artistic attention throughout her career. From the beginning on, the books were declared “not for sale”. One work with special importance, is book No. 55, which is devoted to the social position of women in art. This is, by the way, an important subject in Lilly’s life, however not really visible in her oeuvre. Instead, Keller separated her personal political views from the visual language of the artistic production. In book No. 55, she documents her struggles as a woman in the art world. She painted or glued images and objects over Herbert Distel’s Press Art from 1972/73, a compilation of 52 Swiss artists, in which only one woman, Meret Oppenheim, is included. Lilly Keller, one of Oppenheim’s best friends, but not as well known, of course, is missing. A work in progress since 1973, No. 55 shows Keller’s abiding determination to gain the attention and appreciation that she has been denied as a female artist. Keller’s boundless energy to express herself freely as a female artist is often rebellious in intent and shows her persistence to fight for self- determination, recognition and personal freedom.

In recent years, Lilly Keller has been discovered by art history. In 2010, the first publication about the artist, a monograph Lilly Keller. Das Leben. Das Werk by Andreas Bellasi and Ursula Riederer was published. In 2012, the film Lilly Keller Kunst der Entgrenzung (Lilly Keller. The Art of Dissolving Boundaries) by Peter Battanta was released. “Sternstunde Kunst”, a series of the Swiss Public Television (SRF) about Lilly Keller was broadcast in July 2014. A new monograph Lilly Keller. Künstlerin. Literarisches Porträt by Fredi Lerch was just released in the Vexer Verlag, (St. Gallen, ) in May 2015.

It is, therefore, long overdue to present Lilly Keller’s work and artistic achievements on the international art market to an even wider public in order for her to achieve a higher profile and receive recognition. For a few years now, Lilly Keller with the help of an art professional has been consolidating a catalogue of her entire oeuvre, including photographic documentations and location. This is project is still ongoing. Lilly Keller’s first solo show in Basel since 1989 will take place at balzer projects in June (12 June – 25 July). The exhibition is entitled “Erkenntnis dunkelt Farbe” and only provides a small portion of the artist’s complex oeuvre. On view are selected works from 1950 until 1990, with a focus on the 1980s.

For more information, please contact the gallery: (Isabel Balzer) +41.79.229.3306, [email protected] or [email protected]