From Gerhard Richter to Mary Heilmann
Abstract Art from Private Collections and the Museum’s Holdings
3 February – 28 April 2024 | Beim Stadthaus
Gerhard Richter
Ohne Titel (779-3), 1992
© Gerhard Richter 2023 (0217)
In the art of the 1980s, the formal achievements of the historical avant-garde became a readily available stockpile of forms that could be copied, varied, or referenced. In this context that relativizes all traditions, one-dimensional artistic stances began to dissolve, opening unforeseen possibilities especially in painting. Initially difficult to identify, the painterly positions, which are not limited to revising or resuming historical styles but are instead expressed as a sort of in-between, linked the autonomous visual language of historical abstraction with reality, ultimately reconciling the avant-garde with the present. In an exemplary manner, artists such as Mary Heilmann countered this “withdrawal from painting” with independent works that eluded both the authoritarian aspirations of modernism and the unambiguous attribution of forms. That is also what Gerhard Richter stands for; he uses both traditions of figuration and idioms of abstraction in his work.
With series by Gerhard Richter, David Reed, and Pia Fries, the Kunst Museum Winterthur has at its disposal artistic approaches that have expanded the possibilities of abstract painting in recent years. For the exhibition From Gerhard Richter to Mary Heilmann: Abstract Art from Private Collections and the Museum’s Holdings, these will be shown in dialogue with exceptional paintings from private collections, including works by Jack Whitten, Bernard Frize, Jonathan Lasker, and Katharina Grosse. These artists have substantially influenced painting since the 1990s and they continue to do so today.
The exhibition will be supplemented with sculptural interventions by the American artist Michael E. Smith.
Curator: Konrad Bitterli
21.09.2024
18:00 - 19:00Talk with the Artist / Beim Stadthaus
Where is Duchamp? – Talk with Bethan Huws
Over the last two decades, Bethan Huws has become one of the leading experts on the work of Marcel Duchamp. She will talk about her research into the readymade, the end of painting and the birth of conceptual art, and how her engagement with the French artist’s thought processes and work has influenced and shaped her own work.
The written conversation with the artist will be conducted in English.
17.11.2024
13:00 - 14:00Special / Beim Stadthaus
Just What Was it That Made Yesterday’s Homes So Different, So Appealing? – Gespräch mit Etienne Lullin
Together with Etienne Lullin, Lynn Kost will give a guided tour of the exhibition at the finissage. The tour will focus on the work of Richard Hamilton. As a co-founder of Pop Art, the British artist is an important figure in the exhibition and has helped to shape appropriation art and the perception of the readymade. Lullin is an expert on Hamilton and author of the catalogue raisonné of his prints and multiples, the entire holdings of which are in the collection of the Kunst Museum Winterthur.
With kind support
Kunst Museum Winterthur
Beim Stadthaus
8400 Winterthur
Directions
Tuesday 10 – 20 Uhr
Wednesday to Sunday 10 – 17 Uhr
Closed on Monday
CHF 19 / 16 (reduced)
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