DEINE KUNST (5)
“Alte Meister: Tintoretto in Wolfsburg” – “Deine Kunst: Mensch, der / Körper, der, die, das”
Curatorial work at Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg
17 July 2021 – 19 January 2022
DEINE KUNST (5) “Alte Meister: Tintoretto in Wolfsburg” – “Deine Kunst: Mensch, der / Körper, der, die, das”
In 2019, Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg has invited Michael Müller to curate an experimental new presentation of the collection. The artist will present an exhibition cycle that spans the period of several years and presents the collection in seven successive versions. Different formal as well as thematic emphases are set. In the currently presented fifth version, Michael Müller dedicates himself for the first time to a theme. “Mensch, der / Körper, die, das” illuminates various facets of corporeality and our feeling for the body – a highly virulent question in times of genetic reproductions and surgical optimizations of the body, which leads to interesting approaches and insights.
This presentation is overlaid with the fictitious show Alte Meister: Tintoretto in Wolfsburg [Old Masters: Tintoretto in Wolfsburg], which represents the sixth version. The title “Alte Meister” refers to the novel of the same name by Thomas Bernhard and includes texts by Leszek Stalewski. It is about expectations of an exhibition and the overvaluation of so-called blockbusters. The valuable collection of many museums usually fades into the background in the course of an exaggerated event culture.
The collection of the Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg finds its identity in the focus on art from German-speaking countries after 1945, which is complemented by a considerable stock of international prints. A third focus is the medium of photography. In the current version, Michael Müller not only integrates exhibits from the collection that were created before 1945, but also expands the presentation with numerous loans as well as his own works in order to set them in an exciting dialogue with the collection holdings.The exhibition space in Wolfsburg builds up a special tension. The rooms represent a contrary model to the “white cube,” as they are living and representation rooms that were the home of the family of the Counts of Schulenburg until the middle of the 20th century.
A reminiscence of this time is the pair of gloves – thrown on as if by chance – of the former lord of the castle Günzel Count von der Schulenburg, which introduce the presentation in the west wing. The hand with which we grasp and feel is thematized as well as our second skin, the clothing or the nude and again and again the gaze. The voyeuristic gaze but also the gaze of white artists on foreign cultures and foreign people are discussed.
The exhibition shows works by: Rebecca Ackroyd, Mahdad Alizadeh, Horst Antes, Dieter Appelt, Art & Language, Michael Badura, Georg Baselitz, Max Beckmann, Hans Bellmer, Joseph Beuys, Mel Bochner, Peter Bömmels, Louise Bourgeois, AA Bronson und Mark Jan Krayenhoff van de Leur (in Kollaboration mit Reima Hirvonen, AA Bronson (in Kollaboration mit Bradford Kessler), Lovis Corinth, Jim Dine, Martin Disler, Gerd van Dülmen, Ernst Fuchs, Alberto Giacometti, George Grosz, Karl Hartung, Heinrich Heidersberger, Karl Hofer, Rudolf Hoflehner, Martin Honert, Nan Hoover, Alfred Hrdlicka, Alexei von Jawlensky, Alan Kaprow, KAYA (Kerstin Braetsch & Debo Eilers), Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Manuel Kirsch, Max Klinger, Michael Koch, Jiri Kolar, Käthe Kollwitz, Hermann Kracht, Alfred Kubin, Maria Loboda, Robert Mapplethorpe, André Masson, Duane Michals, Henry Moore, Andreas Mühe, Michael Müller, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Siegfried Neuenhausen, Hermann Nitsch, Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein, João Penalva, Sigmar Polke, Laure Prouvost, Anton Räderscheidt, Mel Ramos, Brigitta Rohrbach, Salomé, Thomas Scheibitz, Claudia Schink, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Michael Schoenholtz, Anja Schrey, Günzel von der Schulenburg, Thomas Schütte, Michael Schwarze, Toni Stadler, Heiko Tiemann, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann, Lambert-Maria Wintersberger.