Pictures Become Books The most beautiful exhibition catalogues of 2017 Bilder werden Bücher Die schönsten Ausstellungskataloge 2017 This selection of German titles is show-cased at book fairs all over the world on the German collective stands organized by the Frankfurter Buchmesse in 2018. ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ Photographs become Gurlitt: Status Report Gerhard Richter Pictures. Bestandsaufnahme Gurlitt Gerhard Richter Fotografien werden Bilder KUNST-UND AUSSTELLUNGSHALLE CHRISTOPH SCHREIER, MARTIN ENGLER DER BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND KUNSTMUSEUM BONN 2017, 256 pages, € 45.- GMBH, KUNSTMUSEUM BERN 2017, 128 pages, € 29.90 Hirmer Verlag, 978-3-7774-2773-7 2017, 348 pages, € 29.90 Hirmer Verlag, 978-3-7774-2897-0 Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Hirmer Verlag, 978-3-7774-2962-5 Kunstmuseum Bonn, 15/6–1/10/2017 27/4–13/8/2017 Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst 3/11/2017–11/3/2018, (S.M.A.K.) Gent, 21/10/2017–18/2/2018 World-famous artists Bernd and “Nazi Art Theft and its Consequences” Museum Wiesbaden, 23/3–24/6/2018 Hilla Becher were the first people in Kunstmuseum Bern, Germany to teach photography as The exhibition in Bonn shows 25 2/11/2017–4/3/2018, an artistic medium. Since the 1980s, paintings with which world renow- “Degenerate Art” – confiscated and sold their teaching has been reflected ned Gerhard Richter laid the foun- in the work of internationally signi- The 1,500 works of art confiscated dations of his work from 1962 and ficant photographers, with large- from Cornelius Gurlitt in 2013 pose 1986. As such, they provide a key to format images showing networks of the question: are they or are they understanding his complete works. relationships, and forming concep- not looted art? The Bonn exhibition The images of curtains, windows tual series. The exhibition presents shows the findings of research into and doors are major pieces from about 200 photographs by Volker the origins of the works. Documents, New York, Budapest and Ghent, Döhne, Andreas Gursky, Candida photos and more tell the story of which play with the question of Höfer, Axel Hütte, Thomas Ruff, Jörg the art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt, what painting shows us or hides Sasse, Thomas Struth and Petra who was the main procurer of art from us. And what of the depiction Wunderlich. for Hitler’s planned museum of art in in the medium and how this rela- Linz. The Kunstmuseum Bern, which tes to the painted depiction of the is the inheritor of the Gurlitt collec- world, or how both these relate to tion, is showing works by Kirchner, reality? Nolde, Klee, Heckel and Dix, related to the story of the “Degenerate Art”. 1 ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ New Bauhaus Chicago Splendour and Misery in The documenta 14 Reader New Bauhaus Chicago the Weimar Republic Der documenta 14 Reader From Otto Dix to Jeanne BAUHAUS ARCHIV / Mammen QUINN LATIMER UND MUSEUM FÜR GESTALTUNG, BERLIN Glanz und Elend in der ADAM SZYMCZYK 2017, 200 pages, € 39.90 Weimarer Republik 2017, 500 pages, € 49.80 Hirmer Verlag, 978-3-7774-2938-0 Verlag Walther König, Bauhaus Archive Museum of Design, INGRID PFEIFFER FÜR 978-3-96098-110-7 in Berlin, 15/11/2017–5/3/2018 SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE FRANKFURT Athens and Kassel, 2017, 608 pages, € 49.90 11/4–17/9/2017 In 1937, László Moholy-Nagy foun- Hirmer Verlag, 978 -3 -7774 -2932 -8 ded the New Bauhaus in Chicago Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, The documenta 14 Reader con- and in so doing exerted a strong 27/10/2017–25/2/2018 tains essays, allegories, poems and influence on American photogra- historical legal documents addres- phy. In their first year, all the stu- This exhibition focuses on the era’s sing the concerns of the project, dents learned the basics of pho- hardships, which are evident in the including a reflection on sovereign tography and experimented with images and across the broad sty- national states, market economies, photomontage, photograms and listic spectrum. In these works, the democracy, and the communica- light painting. Famous teachers artists seem to have sensed the ine- tion of art. It should be taken as such as Harry Callahan, Aaron vitability of the failure of Germany’s a critical anthology that ponders Siskind and Arthur Siegel left their first democratic government. history in order to gain a clearer mark on generations of photogra- The varied themes addressed in this view of the present and reshape phers. The exhibition examines the exciting period – whose best known the future. The picture collections period from 1937 to 2001, and with representatives are Otto Dix, Georg illustrate the event’s broad tem- it a core aspect of the American Grosz and Max Beckmann – include poral and geographical span, as contribution to post-war photo- a farewell to the German Empire, as delineated by the artists and other graphy. well as poverty, pleasure, emanci- actors. pation, the first economic miracle and a fascination with sport. 2 ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ documenta 14: Daybook Gabriele Münter Wolfgang Tillmans documenta 14: Daybook Gabriele Münter Wolfgang Tillmans QUINN LATIMER UND GABRIELE MÜNTER- UND JOHANNES WOLFGANG TILLMANS FÜR DIE ADAM SZYMCZYK EICHNER-STIFTUNG UND STÄDTISCHE FONDATION BEYELER, RIEHEN/BASEL 2017, 344 pages, € 35.- GALERIE IM LENBACHHAUS MÜNCHEN 2017, 304 pages, € 58.- Prestel Verlag, 978-3-7913-5654-9 2017, 256 pages, € 39.95 Hatje Cantz Verlag, 978-3-7757-4328-0 Athens and Kassel, Prestel Verlag, 978-3-7913-5704-1 The Beyeler Foundation, Riehen/Basel, 11/4–17/9/2017 Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus 28/5–1/10/2017 und Kunstbau, Munich, 31/10/2017–8/4/2018 The Daybook imitates the diary This exhibition shows around 200 form, with each artist having been The Lenbachhaus is presenting the photographs taken between 1989 allotted a day in the calendar. most extensive exhibition of Gabriele and 2017 – almost three decades From the start of the documenta Münter’s work for 25 years. More than of work that counts among the in Athens till the final day in Kassel, half of the 130 paintings on show most important of contemporary documenta 14’s participants are have never been seen publicly, or only art. Tillmans was the first photo- introduced in poetic texts. The- in her own lifetime. And for the first grapher to win the Turner Prize se are accompanied by pictures time, her paintings are complemen- (2000), and the first to whom the selected by the artists, as well as ted with around 200 photographs Beyeler Foundation has devoted their recollections of events impor- which she took in 1899 and 1900, on an exhibition. He rapidly became tant for their work. As such, it is a her visit to the USA. Just twenty-two popular in the early 1990s with many-layered universe of artists at the time, she demonstrated an im- works that were seen as historical through whose letters and associ- pressive feeling for complex compo- documents of an adolescence ative words we can read our way sitions. These images and composi- and a feeling of youth. These were into the minds of the documenta tions were a precursor to many of the followed by experiments with and makers. things for which Münter later became without a camera, and with a pho- acclaimed. tocopier. ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ Matisse – Bonnard Paul Klee Anita Rée Matisse – Bonnard Paul Klee Retrospektive FELIX KRÄMER FÜR ANNA SZECH FÜR DIE FONDATION KARIN SCHICK, HAMBURGER STÄDEL MUSEUM, FRANKFURT BEYELER, RIEHEN/BASEL KUNSTHALLE 2017, 240 pages, € 49.95 2017, 200 pages, € 58.- 2017, 204 pages, € 39.95 Prestel Verlag, 978-3-7913-5631-0 Hatje Cantz Verlag, 978-3-7757-4330-3 Prestel Verlag, 978-3-7913-5710-2 Städel Museum, Frankfurt, The Beyeler Foundation, Riehen/Basel, Hamburg Kunsthalle, 6/10/2017–4/2/2018 9/13/2017–1/14/2018 1/10/2017–21/1/2018 The Hamburg Kunsthalle is coun- Henri Matisse and Pierre Bonnard Paul Klee was one of the most influ- tering the myths surrounding Anita were two of the most famous re- ential painters of European moder- Rée with a retrospective encom- presentatives of French modernism. nism. His works have been shown in passing 200 works. Her dark repu- The friendship between these fellow many exhibitions, but this is the first tation stems from pictorial analyses artists lasted for over 40 years. Each to deal comprehensively with Klee’s as well as the biographical detail took an intense approach to the approach to abstraction. Four the- that she took her own life before same themes: interiors, still life, land- mes contribute to a common thread she was 50. Hard to pin down, her scapes and above all female nudes. through Klee’s art. These are nature, style is a mixture of traditional and With 120 canvasses filled with light architecture, painting and alphabe- modern, borrowing as much from and colours, as well as sculptures, tic characters, and their forms vary New Objectivity and Cubism as drawings and graphic works, the between the semi-figurative and from the early Renaissance. This exhibition brings the two painters abstract. In these, new links emerge, exhibition rehabilitates an artist into a dialogue, vividly demonstra- both to Klee’s contemporaries and who is interesting and diverse as ting their mutual influence. to later generations. well as curious and intellectual. 3 ____________________________ ____________________________ ____________________________ Thomas Struth – Axel Hütte James Rosenquist