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Giorgio Verzotti

DAL COLORE AL SEGNO

SULLE TRACCE DI UN’ESTETICA RELAZIONALE
A arte Studio Invernizzi

DAL COLORE AL SEGNO
SULLE TRACCE DI UN’ESTETICA RELAZIONALE

a cura di Giorgio Verzotti
3 ottobre - 3 dicembre 2002
A arte Studio Invernizzi
Via D. Scarlatti 12 20124 Milano Tel. Fax 02 29402855 [email protected] www.aarteinvernizzi.com www.artnet.com

GIANNI ASDRUBALI ALAN CHARLTON HELMUT DORNER HELMUT FEDERLE BERNARD FRIZE P I N O P I N E L L I GÜNTER UMBERG

Dal colore al segno. Sulle tracce di un’estetica relazionale

  • Si parla oggi di una estetica relazionale come del
  • apparente mancanza di relazioni col mondo esterno.

In realtà l’opera raramente smette di relazionarsi con l’altro da sé, e lo vediamo nella storia del monocromo che gli anni Sessanta e Settanta hanno riattualizzato dopo le premesse nate in seno alle avanguardie storiche. Al pari della griglia, il monocromo può essere visto come un’icona tipica del Modernismo, vale a dire di quello sforzo prometeico atto non solo a unificare l’arte e la vita ma anche a farsi discorso di verità, insomma ad incarnare tutte le utopie di inveramento dell’assoluto che hanno agitato molta astrazione da Malevic in poi. Il monocromo coniugato all’interno delle correnti riflessive, analitiche della pittura americana ed europea degli scorsi decenni ha propriamente vissuto direttamente il passaggio dai cieli dell’assoluto alla terra delle relatività, e questo con grande coerenza. Così, l’unico contraltare che possiamo davvero contrapporre alle estetiche relazionali di oggi è (forse) la tensione ontologica di Ad Reinhardt col suo “ultimo quadro possibile”, unica occasione in cui davvero il colore nero in pittura ha significato l’assorbimento in Uno della molteplicità, di ogni relatività fenomenica. Con il nero di Frank Stella le cose cambiano già, come è noto. Questa mostra tenta di fondare una genealogia per sommi capi, una piccola storia che si inquadra in quella più generale, dove quel passaggio si manifesta come continuità di una riflessione che coinvolge anche le generazioni più giovani, non senza mutamenti di rotta ma nel rispetto, se non nell’osservanza, delle premesse. tratto distintivo che contrassegna i lavori artistici più significativi della nostra contemporaneità. L’opera si pone, in questa prospettiva, al centro di un insieme di relazioni di senso che concorrono a determinarla, a partire dal punto di vista dell’osservatore per finire con le oggettive condizioni di visibilità dell’opera stessa. L’opera insomma è una struttura aperta all’interazione di fattori transeunti, non è più allacciata ad una definizione perentoria di sé. Tali osservazioni colgono perfettamente la natura di molto lavoro artistico di oggi, e risultano convincenti in tutti i loro postulati, tranne che nelle premesse da cui partono. Queste ultime colgono un dato di novità nell’apertura testuale di oggi e la contrappongono evidentemente alla chiusura nelle asserzioni di autonomia e autoreferenzialità di molta arte del recente passato. Delineata una genealogia, essa andrebbe verificata nei passaggi, nei nodi su cui si regge. Ebbene, alla ricerca di questo assoluto che nel passato recente, a partire dal cuore delle ricerche degli anni Settanta, avrebbe dominato i pensieri degli artisti, difficilmente troviamo traccia. In altri termini, viene da pensare che tutte le estetiche frequentate nei decenni appena trascorsi siano state “relazionali” perché tutte mettevano in discussione, anziché confermare, la centralità dell’opera, il suo compiaciuto chiudersi in sé, in una totale e totalizzante autosufficienza. Perfino nell’ambito minimalista il rapporto con lo spazio espositivo indebolisce radicalmente l’attestato forte di identità dell’opera, anche se vale sempre l’osservazione ironica di Vito Acconci quando paragona, in un’intervista, il misterioso e mistico monolito attorno a cui si agitano le scim-

mie in 2001 odissea nello spazio di Kubrick alla

scultura minimal,altrettanto“calata dall’alto”nella sua
Leggiamo qui il passaggio da una poetica del colore (o del non-colore, che è lo stesso) ad una poetica del segno, da una retorica della contiguità delle figure ad un’altra basata sulla commistione, da un’istanza di assenza ad una di presenza del

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soggetto, nella fedeltà però ad un assunto fondamentale, il rapporto fra l’opera e lo spazio. di segmenti simili che nella molteplicità assumono intensità espressiva, o energia. L’intensità è data dal colore acceso e dalla disposizione imprevedibile, spesso molto ardita, dell’opera sulla parete. Una volta “allestita” a muro, però, quest’opera nata dalla neutralità di un gesto integralmente costruttivo e ripetitivo, trasforma lo spazio circostante investendolo della propria forza. Una analoga considerazione si può fare per il lavoro di Günter Umberg. La stessa attenzione minuziosa alla fattura dell’opera, creata strato a strato come corpo fragile e quasi intangibile, si combina con una analoga intenzione di animare lo spazio con la presenza dell’opera dislocata secondo non canoniche modalità, così da intervenire dinamicamente anche sul fattore della percezione e da integrarlo attivamente nel processo di significazione. Le tendenze analitiche più interessanti insomma non hanno mai, per usare un termine forte, feticizzato la pittura e il suo ambito espressivo ma l’hanno sempre confrontata con il suo altro, e l’analisi si è qualificata proprio in questo confronto: difficile dunque trovare un’arte più “relazionale” di questa. Un’analoga volontà di confronto è presente in quelle ricerche pittoriche astratte che hanno segnato il passaggio fra gli anni Settanta e gli Ottanta, e che sono emerse a metà del nuovo decennio anche come reazione all’imperante figurazione neo-espressionista. Il termine improprio ma significativo di neo-geo designava l’opera di artisti americani che si distinguevano per la ripresa dei postulati modernisti rimessi a loro volta in discussione dalle generazioni precedenti. E se Hal Foster legge in questi artisti (da Peter Halley a Ross Blechner ad altri) solo il cinismo di una facile poetica citazionista per di più ingrata nei confronti degli autori citati, in Europa la ripresa dell’astrazione prosegue invece per vie che radicalizzano la portata critica dei suoi precedenti. appartiene a tutt’altra natura. Essa si origina da elementi figurali che nella composizione emergono in forma di schemi ricavati per estrema riduzione dai dati dell’esperienza, che la trascendono recandone però sempre una traccia mnestica. Molte delle opere di Federle inoltre, fra cui quelle esposte in questa occasione, accentuano l’abbandono delle istanze autoreferenziali per farsi letteralmente “altro”, per porsi, come succede negli esemplari del presente ciclo pittorico, come le lettere di un utopistico alfabeto iconico, ogni dipinto corrispondente alla lettera di un linguaggio possibilmente universale. Le stesure in Federle lasciano trasparire le tracce della gestualità, il suo linguaggio si sottrae al modello dell’assenza per far emergere piuttosto i moti pulsionali, osservazione che vale a maggior ragione per Helmut Dorner. Nella recente produzione del pittore le stesure diventano sovrapposizioni di dense lacche colorate che creano chiazze cromatiche sovrapposte e interagenti, in una vera e propria retorica della commistione. A questa densità materica della pittura si contrappone però l’evanescenza o l’immaterialità dei supporti in plexiglass, in modo che l’opera si apra virtualmente allo spazio reale anche senza dirompere l’integrità del supporto. materialità del quadro, al quale concede l’integrità tuttavia sottraendo pathos all’atto pittorico. Se il quadro ricompare, la sua portata codificante viene indebolita con la scelta del fregio, di una disposizione nello spazio che ricorre spesso nel lavoro dell’artista e che ancora una volta relativizza il codice alle manifestazioni fenomeniche dell’ambiente. D’altra parte le procedure pittoriche a cui Frize si dedica con ingegno risentono della critica mossa alla pittura come sistema da precedenti quali Buren,Toroni o Mosset. Anche qui come nei casi citati l’atto pittorico perde di enfasi, viene regolamentato e ridotto ad un atto semplice, anonimo e ripetitivo ma non per questo meno creativo: nel caso del più giovane artista francese, esso si può per esempio risolvere nell’applicazione sulla tela delle pellicole di colore solidificate nei barattoli di vernice lasciati aperti. Gianni Asdrubali invece appiattisce il dipinto e gli sottrae per questo il supporto del telaio, per innestare con lo spazio un rapporto ancora diverso. La tela qui viene intagliata, conformata per assecondare l’andamento, le volute, del groviglio di segni che l’artista ha generato e che raffigura in una proliferazione potenzialmente infinita. Ogni opera diventa così un microuniverso di energie contrapposte, significate nella scelta di due soli colori come di due polarità primarie in eterna tensione. A questo punto è lo spazio reale che diventa campo d’azione per l’esplicarsi di una simile dialettica, le pareti diventando ancora una volta la condizione necessaria per la manifestazione della pittura.
È lo spazio in cui si colloca che determina la visibilità dell’opera, vale a dire la sua struttura. Quest’ultima è postulata per interagire con l’ambiente, col vuoto metaforico e ad un tempo reale rappresentato dalla parete e dallo spazio espositivo. Del resto, l’opera stessa si instaura su un bilico fra ostensione di una pura realtà materiale e messa in opera di una funzione simbolica: da un lato essa “è quello che è, dice quello che dice”, come recita il titolo di un saggio in catalogo della Biennale di Venezia dedicata agli anni Settanta, dall’altro essa fa di più, indica e allude. L’istanza dello spazio dunque induce l’opera a mutare di funzione: se non rappresenta, l’opera d’arte neppure si limita a presentare, ma appunto allude all’altro da sé per così dire incorporandolo, cioè aprendo la propria unità e integrità allo spazio.Vedo in questo, e l’ho anche già detto, una centralità e una eredità di Lucio Fontana. In Alan Charlton l’opera si presenta dissezionata, frammentata in elementi che se ricostruiscono idealmente il formato-codice del rettangolo ne sanzionano d’altra parte la perdita irrimediabile. L’ordine in cui gli elementi si dispongono sulla parete, la luce naturale che interagisce con la molteplice gamma delle stesure grigie, il movimento dell’osservatore che“posiziona” ogni volta il lavoro diventano fattori di attribuzione di senso. Il corpo integro del quadrato-codice resta e ricompare in veste di polo dialettico dentro una disamina che analizza il corpo della pittura per via di dissezione, sottrazione, azzeramento.
Un tratto comune di alcuni di questi dipinti, di alcune fra queste procedure, è la scelta di installare l’opera leggermente staccata dal piano della parete, come ad evidenziare una sua insopprimibile e innata intenzione a staccarsi dalla bidimensionalità. Anche i supporti di Charlton, Pinelli e Umberg dall’accentuato spessore evidenziano una loro natura oggettuale che li pone in termini di differenza rispetto alle superfici dello spazio. A suo modo, Bernard Frize si concentra sulla
Le stesure di colore sono date per sovrapposizioni continue e pazienti, tutto viene posto in contiguità, uno sopra l’altro, uno accanto all’altro, in un insieme di relazioni fra identici. Il procedimento di Pino Pinelli è analogo, quando interviene con continue stesure di colore fino a saturare uniformemente le superfici. Questa uniformità o neutralità nell’intervento cromatico, questa assenza di enfasi nel gesto pittorico, è funzionale ad una resa dell’opera come proliferazione
Giorgio Verzotti
Helmut Federle dà vita ad una pittura che a prima vista gioca con l’apriori geometrico di matrice costruttivista, ma svela ben presto che la sua pittura dai colori sobrii e dalla limpida impaginazione

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Senza fine traluce l’intenebro sul confine.

Carlo Invernizzi Morterone 8 ottobre 1995

From Colour to the Sign: on the Trail of a Relational Aesthetic

  • Today a relational aesthetic is regarded as the
  • 2001: A   Space Odyssey to Minimalist sculpture,

which similarly seems to have arrived from outer space because of its apparent lack of links with the outside world. distinguishing feature of the most outstanding modern artworks. In this perspective, the work is situated at the centre of a system of relationships of meaning that help to determine its nature, starting with the observer’s point of view and ending with the objective conditions of visibility of the work itself.The work is, in short, a structure open to the interaction of transient factors and is no longer linked to an absolutely final definition of itself. These observations are a perfect reflection of the nature of many contemporary artworks, and all their postulates are convincing except for the premises from which they begin.The latter highlight an element of novelty in the textual opening of today, and they contrast it very evidently with the closure in assertions of independence and self-reference of much art of the recent past. Once a genealogy has been drawn up, it should be verified in the passages, in the nodal points on which it stands. Thus, when we search for this absolute, which in the recent past - beginning with the core of the experimentation of the 1970s - appears to have dominated the artists’ thoughts, we are unlikely to find any trace. In other words, we are inclined to think that all the aesthetic principles in vogue in recent decades were “relational” because they all questioned rather than confirmed the centrality of the work and its complacent withdrawal into itself in total, all-absorbing self-sufficiency.
In reality, the work rarely ceases to form a relationship with other entities, and we see this in the history of the monochrome, which was revived in the 1960s and 1970s after it had originated in the avant-garde movements. Rather like the grid, the monochrome may be regarded as a typical icon of Modernism - by this we mean the Promethean effort capable not only of uniting art with life but also of becoming a discourse on truth and of embodying all the utopias seeking to make the absolute come true that agitated much of the abstract art created from Malevich onwards. The monochrome forming part of the reflective, analytical currents of American and European painting of the last few decades has, in fact, had first-hand experience of the passage from the heavens of the absolute to the terrain of relativity. Thus, the relational aesthetics of today can only be counterbalanced, perhaps, by Ad Reinhardt’s ontological tension, with his “last possible picture,” the only occasion on which black in painting has signified the absorption into one of multiplicity and of all phenomenal relativity. As is well known, with Frank Stella’s black paintings things had already changed. This exhibition attempts to sketch out a genealogy, a short history forming part of a more general one, where this passage manifests itself as the continuity of reflections that also involve the younger generations, not without changes of direction, but paying attention to - even if not completely observing - the premises. This is, therefore, the passage from the poetry of colour (or non-colour, which is the same thing) to the poetry of the sign, from the rhetoric of the contiguity of the figures
Even in the case of Minimal art the relationship with the exhibition space radically weakens the strong statement of the work’s identity, although there is still much truth in the ironical observation made by Vito Acconci when, in an interview, he compared the mysterious monolith around which the monkeys fuss in Stanley Kubrick’s

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to another based on the mixture, from a need for absence to one for presence of the subjects, but with fidelity to a basic assumption - the relationship between the work and space. until the surface is uniformly permeated with it. This uniformity or neutrality in the application of the colour and this lack of emphasis in the act of painting allows the work to be divided into a large number of similar fragments that, in their multiplicity, assume expressive intensity or energy. The intensity is the result of the bright colour and the unpredictable disposition - often very bold - of the work on the wall. Once it has been installed on the wall, however, this work born of the neutrality of a wholly constructive and repetitive gesture, transforms the surrounding space, assailing it with its energy. Similar observations may be made with regard to Günter Umberg’s work. The same meticulous attention given to the execution of the work, which is created layer by layer as a fragile, almost intangible, body, is combined with a similar intention to animate space with the presence of the work arranged in an uncanonical manner. This allows it to intervene dynamically also in the process of perception, integrating it actively with the process of signification. Analytical tendencies, in other words, have never fetishized painting and its expressive sphere, but have always compared it with its other being, and the analysis has been characterized in this very comparison: it is, therefore, difficult to find a more “relational” type of art than this. A similar desire for comparison is present in the abstract painting that marked the transition from the 1970s to the 1980s; this came to the fore in the middle of the new decade as a reaction against the figurative art of the prevailing Neo-Expressionist movement. The somewhat inaccurate term Neo-Geo was applied to the work of American artists who were noted for the revival of the Modernist postulates that had been questioned by the previous generations. And while the American critic Hal Foster only saw in these artists - Peter Halley, Ross Blechner and others - the cynicism of a simplistic use of quotation, which was generally ungrateful to the artists quoted, in Europe, on the other hand, the revival of abstraction proceeded in directions that radicalized the critical significance of its precursors. distinguishing them from the surfaces of the space. In his own way, Bernard Frize focuses on the materiality of the picture, to which he grants integrity while removing pathos from the act of painting. Although the picture reappears, its codifying capacity is weakened with the choice of the frieze, the disposition in space that frequently recurs in the artist’s work and that once again relativizes the code with regard to the phenomenal manifestations of the surroundings. On the other hand, the pictorial procedures to which Frize ingeniously devotes himself have been affected by the criticism of painting as system of precedents as in the work of Daniel Buren, Niele Toroni or Oliver Mosset. Also here, as in the cases mentioned, painting loses emphasis, it is regulated and reduced to an act that is simple, anonymous and repetitive, but not any less creative: in the case of this younger French artist, it may, for example, be resolved by applying to the canvas the skins of colour that form in the cans of paint left open. Gianni Asdrubali, on the contrary, flattens the painting, removing the support of the stretcher, in order to create a different relationship with space. In this case the canvas is cut and shaped to conform to the modulations, spirals and maze of signs that the artist has generated, representing their potentially infinite proliferation. Each work thus becomes a microcosm of contrasting energies, signified by the choice of two colours only as two primary polarities in eternal tension. At this point it is real space that becomes the field of action where this dialectic can take place, the walls being once again the necessary condition for the display of painting.
Helmut Federle started a type of painting that, at first sight, seemed to be playing with the geometric elements of Constructivist origin, but soon revealed that his work with its sober colours and clear composition had a totally different nature. It originated from figurative elements that, in the composition, emerge in the form of schemata deriving by means of drastic reduction from the sphere of experience, and, although they transcend it, they always bear a mnemic trace. Many of Federle’s works, moreover - including those exhibited on this occasion - accentuate the abandonment of the self-referential aspirations so as to become literally “other” and appear, as happens in the examples in the present cycle of paintings, as the letters of an ironic utopian alphabet: thus, each picture corresponds to the letter of what might be a universal language. Federle’s application of paint allows the traces of the artist’s gestures to be visible: his style avoids the model of absence in order to allow the emotional drive to emerge, and this is even truer in the case of Helmut Dorner. In this artist’s recent output, the layers of paint become superimpositions of dense coloured lacquers creating interactive blotches of colour in the true rhetoric of mixture. This dense matière contrasts, however, with the evanescence or immateriality of the plexiglas supports, so that the work opens out virtually into real space without breaking the integrity of the support.
It is the space in which it is located that determines the work’s visibility - that is to say, its structure. The latter is intended to interact with the surroundings, with the void that is metaphorical and, at the same time, real represented by the wall and exhibition space. Moreover, the work itself it is balanced between the display of pure material reality and the installation of a symbolic function: on the one hand it “is what it is, it says what it says” - this is the title of an essay in the catalogue of the Venice Biennale devoted to the 1970s - while, on the other hand, it goes further because it indicates and alludes.The need for space, therefore, induces the work to change its function: even if it does not represent, the work of art does not limit itself to presenting, but rather it alludes to its other being, incorporating it in a manner of speaking - that is to say, opening up its unity and integrity to space. In this, I see - and I have already said this - the centrality and a legacy of Lucio Fontana. In the case of Alan Charlton, the work is dissected and broken up into elements that metaphorically reconstruct the format-code of the rectangle, but, at the same time, they confirm its irredeemable loss.The order in which the elements are arranged on the wall, the natural light that interacts with the varied range of the layers of grey and the observer’s movement that, on each occasion, “locates” the work all become factors that give it a meaning.The integral body of the square-code remains and reappears as a dialectic pole in a close examination of the body of painting by dissection, removal and cancellation.
A common feature of some of these paintings and of some of these procedures is the decision to install the work slightly detached from the surface of the wall, as if to stress its irrepressible and innate intention to free itself of two-dimensionality. Charlton’s, Pinelli’s and Umberg’s supports,which are noticeably thick, also emphasize their existence as objects,
The layers of paint are continuously and patiently superimposed on each other; everything is placed contiguously, one on the other, one next to the other, in an ensemble of relationships between identical things.
Giorgio Verzotti Milan 18 September 2002

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  • Helmut Federle

    Helmut Federle

    HELMUT FEDERLE Born 1944 in Solothurn Lives and works in Camaiore, Italy and Vienna, Austria 1999 – 2007 Professor, Staatliche Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf, Germany 2008 Prix Aurélie Nemours 2016 Ricola Collection Prize SOLO EXHIBITIONS (selection) 2019 19 E. 21 ST., 6 Large Paintings, Kunstmuseum Basel/Neubau, Basel, Switzerland 2017 Abstract Matter [Paintings and Ceramics], Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, Portugal, catalogue 2016 Dark Night Three, Le Box, M–Arco, Marseille, France, catalogue 2013 The Ferner Paintings, Peter Blum, New York City, New York, catalogue 2012 American Songline, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Luzern, Switzerland, catalogue Esencial, Fundación Bancaja, Valencia, Spain, catalogue 2010 Helmut Federle, curated by Roman Kurzmeyer, Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna, Austria, catalogue 2009 Scratching Away at the Surface, Peter Blum, New York City, New York 2005 Zeichnungen 1975 bis 1997 aus Schweizer Museumsbesitz, Rudolf Steiner Archiv / Haus Duldeck, Dornach, Switzerland, catalogue 2004 Helmut Federle – A Nordic View by Erik Steffensen, Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna, Austria, catalogue Edelweiss (Ausführung), Nietzsche-Haus, Sils-Maria, Switzerland, catalogue 2002 Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, Nantes, France, catalogue 1999 Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, Austria, catalogue 1998 IVAM Centre Julio González, Valencia, Spain, catalogue 1997 Venice Biennale, Swiss Pavillion, Venice, Italy, catalogue 1995 Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France, catalogue Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany, catalogue 1992 Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland; Moderna Museet Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden; Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany (1993), catalogue 1991 Wiener Secession, Vienna, Austria, catalogue 1989 Helmut Federle. Bilder und Zeichnungen 1975–1988, Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany; Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany; Kunstverein Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, catalogue 27.02.2019 Musée de Grenoble, Grenoble, France, catalogue 1985 Helmut Federle.
  • Helmut Federle

    Helmut Federle

    HELMUT FEDERLE Born 1944 in Solothurn/Switzerland, lives and works in Vienna/Austria and Camaiore/Italy 1999 – 2007 Professor, Staatliche Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf, Germany 2008 Prix Aurélie Nemours 2016 Ricola Collection Prize SOLO EXHIBITIONS (selection) 2017 Abstract Matter [Paintings and Ceramics], Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, Portugal, catalogue, texts by Edmund de Waal and Elisabeth von Samsonow 2016 Dark Night Three, Le Box, M–Arco, Marseille, France, catalogue, éditions p, Marseille, text by Robert Fleck 2013 The Ferner Paintings, Peter Blum, New York, New York, catalogue, text by Erich Franz 2012 American Songline, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland, catalogue, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern, Gemany, texts by Robert Storr, Fanni Fetzer, Joseph Masheck, and John Yau Esencial, Fundación Bancaja, Valencia, Spain, catalogue, text by Juan Manuel Bonet 2010 Helmut Federle, curated by Roman Kurzmeyer, Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna, Austria, catalogue, text by Roman Kurzmeyer (taken up again in: fair, Zeitung für Kunst und Ästhetik, Vienna, Nr. 8/I-2010, S. 17-19 2009 Scratching Away at the Surface, Peter Blum, New York, New York Échafaudages, FRAC Picardie, Collège Marcelin Berthelot, Nogent-sur-Oise, France, (mit Paul Pagk) 2005 Drawings by 1975 till 1997 out of the Schweizer Museumsbesitz, Rudolf Steiner Archiv / Haus Duldeck, Dornach, Switzerland, catalogue, Schwabe Verlag, Basel, text by Simon Baur and Angeli Janhsen 2004 Edelweiß (Ausführung), exhibition on the occasion of the Colloquium Friedrich Nietzsche – Rechtfertigung der Welt durch die Kunst, Nietzschehaus, Sils-Maria, Switzerland, catalogue, Schwabe Verlag, Basel, Switzerland, text by Peter André Bloch and Jan Thorn-Prikker 2004 Helmut Federle – A Nordic View by Erik Steffensen, Galerie nächst St.
  • Art and Vinyl — Artist Covers and Records Komposition René Pulfer Kuratoren: Søren Grammel, Philipp Selzer 17

    Art and Vinyl — Artist Covers and Records Komposition René Pulfer Kuratoren: Søren Grammel, Philipp Selzer 17

    Art and Vinyl — Artist Covers and Records Komposition René Pulfer Kuratoren: Søren Grammel, Philipp Selzer 17. November 2018 – 03. Februar 2019 Ausstellungsinformation Raumplan Wand 3 Wand 7 Wand 2 Wand 6 Wand 5 Wand 4 Wand 2 Wand 1 ARTIST WORKS for 33 1/3 and 45 rpm (revolutions per minute) Komposition René Pulfer Der Basler Künstler René Pulfer, einer der Pioniere der Schweizer Videokunst und Hochschulprofessor an der HGK Basel /FHNW bis 2015, hat sich seit den späten 1970 Jahren auch intensiv mit Sound Art, Kunst im Kontext von Musik (Covers, Booklets, Artist Editions in Mu- sic) interessiert und exemplarische Arbeiten von Künstlerinnen und Künstlern gesammelt. Die Ausstellung konzentriert sich auf Covers und Objekte, bei denen das künstlerische Bild in Form von Zeichnung, Malerei oder Fotografie im Vordergrund steht. Durch die eigenständige Präsenz der Bildwerke treten die üblichen Angaben zur musikalischen und künstlerischen Autorschaft in den Hintergrund. Die Sammlung umfasst historische und aktuelle Beispiele aus einem Zeitraum von über 50 Jahren mit geschichtlich unterschiedlich gewachsenen Kooperationsformen zwischen Kunst und Musik bis zu aktuellen Formen der Multimedialität mit fliessenden Grenzen, so wie bei Rodney Graham mit der offenen Fragestellung: „Am I a musician trapped in an artist's mind or an artist trapped in a musician's body?" ARTIST WORKS for 33 1/3 and 45 rpm (revolutions per minute) Composition René Pulfer The Basel-based artist René Pulfer, one of the pioneers of Swiss video- art and a university professor at the HGK Basel / FHNW until 2015, has been intensively involved with sound art in the context of music since the late 1970s (covers, booklets, artist editions in music ) and coll- ected exemplary works by artists.
  • When Helmut Federle Created His Work “Liegendes H (1)” (Reclining

    When Helmut Federle Created His Work “Liegendes H (1)” (Reclining

    When Helmut Federle created his work “Liegendes H (1)” (Reclining H) in 1979, he developed a composition that he would later vary in his series “Basics on Composition”, most of which was made in 1992. 40 years after painting the first picture, he decided to revisit it again in 2019. The first work, which he painted during his time in New York and whose form is based on the first letter of his first name, has become a kind of iconic feature of his artistic practice that apparently refuses to loosen its grip on him. We used Federle’s resumption of the series this year as an occasion to organize this exhibition. The current "Basics on Composition" mark the beginning of a new phase of painting after a hiatus of five years. In his “Basics on Composition”, Federle returns to the tradition of geometric abstraction, but renews and expands it as a field of tension in which to research the relationship between figure and ground, order and chaos, movement and calmness. The bars of the “Liegende H (1)” and the two squares formed by the open ends on the left and right are transformed into individualized, geometric planes of equal value that continually reverse the traditional relationship between figure and ground, while rejecting balance and closure. “Federle has destabilized the square, its solid form, and turned it into something that no longer represents authority. His squares are defined by their relationship to the space around them. His compositions are decidedly non-hierarchical” (John Yau, 1993). The power of the now almost 70 variations of this motif, always in the small format of 40 x 50 cm, derives from their strong emotional presence, which can be quiet, or sometimes almost “sassy.” The colors selected for the squares range from yellow, to yellow-green, to green, and sometimes include, though rarely, a light brown.
  • Tate Report 2002–2004

    Tate Report 2002–2004

    TATE REPORT 2002–2004 Tate Report 2002–2004 Introduction 1 Collection 6 Galleries & Online 227 Exhibitions 245 Learning 291 Business & Funding 295 Publishing & Research 309 People 359 TATE REPORT 2002–2004 1 Introduction Trustees’ Foreword 2 Director’s Introduction 4 TATE REPORT 2002–2004 2 Trustees’ Foreword • Following the opening of Tate Modern and Tate Britain in 2000, Tate has consolidated and built on this unique achieve- ment, presenting the Collection and exhibitions to large and new audiences. As well as adjusting to unprecedented change, we continue to develop and innovate, as a group of four gal- leries linked together within a single organisation. • One exciting area of growth has been Tate Online – tate.org.uk. Now the UK’s most popular art website, it has won two BAFTAs for online content and for innovation over the last two years. In a move that reflects this development, the full Tate Biennial Report is this year published online at tate.org.uk/tatereport. This printed publication presents a summary of a remarkable two years. • A highlight of the last biennium was the launch of the new Tate Boat in May 2003. Shuttling visitors along the Thames between Tate Britain and Tate Modern, it is a reminder of how important connections have been in defining Tate’s success. • Tate is a British institution with an international outlook, and two appointments from Europe – of Vicente Todolí as Director of Tate Modern in April 2003 and of Jan Debbaut as Director of Collection in September 2003 – are enabling us to develop our links abroad, bringing fresh perspectives to our programme.

  • Catalogue Entitled “Philip Taaffe and Abstraction As the Continuance of Ornamental History” Deals with the Special Role He Plays in This Context

    Philip Taaffe The Life of Forms Works 1980 –2008 With contributions by Brooks Adams Holger Broeker Markus Brüderlin Kay Heymer March 8 to June 29, 2008 Contents Sponsor’s Statement 4 About the Exhibition 5 Kay Heymer On the Development of the Pictorial Work of Philip Taaffe 11 Plates 27 Philip Taaffe A Project for Wolfsburg 177 Markus Brüderlin Abstraction as the Continuance of Ornamental History 185 Holger Broeker Forms in Time 193 Brooks Adams Interview 205 Checklist of Exhibited Works 231 Authors’ Biographies 233 Biography 234 Selected Bibliography 236 Sponsor’s Statement With the exhibition Philip Taaffe: The Life of Forms, the Volkswagen Bank is again pleased to be able to support the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in showing art of international significance. The partnership with the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg has existed since 2001. Aside from the monographic exhibitions Neo Rauch. Neue Rollen and Douglas Gordon. Between Darkness and Light, the projects sponsored since then include the two large group exhibitions ArchiSculpture. Dialogues Between Architecture and Sculpture from the 18th Century to the Present Day and Japan and the West: The Filled Void, which testify to the museum’s high standard of quality under the direc­ torship of Markus Brüderlin. In the exhibition Philip Taaffe: The Life of Forms, the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg shows the fasci­ nating world of ornaments in the oeuvre of the artist who was born in New Jersey in 1955. This comprehensive survey of his work already promises to be one of the most exciting rediscoveries in the history of American painting. The works of the painter who attracted much attention in New York in the nineteen­eighties with his appropriation and reworking of existing images and styles are influ­ enced by dealings with the history of ornaments from diverse epochs and cultures.
  • HELMUT FEDERLE Basics on Composition 1992 & 2019 / Horizont Der Sieben Seen

    HELMUT FEDERLE Basics on Composition 1992 & 2019 / Horizont Der Sieben Seen

    HELMUT FEDERLE Basics on Composition 1992 & 2019 / Horizont der sieben Seen (Horizon of the Seven Lakes) November 9, 2019 – January 25, 2020 When Helmut Federle created his work “Liegendes H (1)” (Reclining H) in 1979, he developed a composition that he would later vary in his series “Basics on Composition”, most of which was made in 1992. 40 years after painting the first picture, he decided to revisit it again in 2019. The first work, which he painted during his time in New York and whose form is based on the first letter of his first name, has become a kind of iconic feature of his artistic practice that apparently refuses to loosen its grip on him. We used Federle’s resumption of the series this year as an occasion to organize this exhibition. The current "Basics on Composition" mark the beginning of a new phase of painting after a hiatus of five years. In his “Basics on Composition”, Federle returns to the tradition of geometric abstraction, but renews and expands it as a field of tension in which to research the relationship between figure and ground, order and chaos, movement and calmness. The bars of the “Liegende H (1)” and the two squares formed by the open ends on the left and right are transformed into individualized, geometric planes of equal value that continually reverse the traditional relationship between figure and ground, while rejecting balance and closure. “Federle has destabilized the square, its solid form, and turned it into something that no longer represents authority. His squares are defined by their relationship to the space around them.
  • Dominikus Muller

    Dominikus Muller

    ART AT SWISS RE NEXT I HELMUT FEDERLE DOMINIKUS MULLER "THE ENORMOUS ROOM" wooden walls. The artist stood in the For Helmut Federle art is a matter of the middle and directed the execution of his utmost existential tension and a spiri- meticulously planned painting. tual affair: an expression of the individual, The Enormous Room clearly re­ a sign of inner unrest, a search for flects Federle's signature style; it is orientation. Federle's abstract, geometric an expression of his presence. The paint paintings are intensive and expressive, was applied in accordance with a while also possessing the calm composure specific dramaturgy: more or less intense, of a Zen garden. At Swiss Re Next, lighter or darker. Some areas of the he has transformed the auditorium into a wooden walls have been left untouched, walk-in painting. others are densely covered. Different superimposed layers begin to shimmer, One of Helmut creating depth and rhythm. Federle's favourite words is On one side there is a "climatic". In an interview remotely rectangular patch he stated: "Colour transports while on the other there climate." His painting of are vigorously applied the auditorium at Swiss Re painterly brushstrokes that Next is meant to look "cli­ recall the precision and matic rather than geometric". meditative concentration of A "climate" (cold or warm, calligraphy. And, finally, in the harsh or mild) is a statement, top back corner, there is even when it is a matter a comment on the painterly of something as intangible principle, and maybe on and personal as moods the fact that Federle was less and feelings.