BILBAO.- The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao announced that six artworks by international contemporary artists will be incorporated into the Museum’s collection, thanks to a gift from the D.Daskalopoulos Collection.
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Artworks by Matthew Barney, John Bock, Kendell Geers, Guyton/Walker, Martin Kippenberger, and Kiki Smith—sculptures, installations, and paintings—will now enrich the Museum’s holdings. In addition to having been shown in many international art institutions, these works were also part of the exhibition of the D.Daskalopoulos Collection at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in 2011, curated by Nancy Spector and Katherine Brinson (Guggenheim Daskalopoulos Curator, Contemporary Art since 2017) titled The Luminous Interval.
The donation of these six works to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao strengthens its Collection, not only by introducing new mediums that combine mixed techniques and ambitious scales but also by expanding its list of internationally renowned artists.
In particular, the addition of works by Kendell Geers and Kiki Smith brings a new approach in two areas the Museum aims to strengthen: the decolonial perspective explored by Geers through his critique of power systems, and the integration of female artists like Smith, whose production delves into anatomy, gender, and identity.
This gift also adds the first artwork from the Guyton/Walker collective to the Guggenheim Institutions’ global holdings, while the Martin Kippenberger artwork solidifies an already existing group of German postwar artists including Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Georg Baselitz, and Anselm Kiefer, forging an intergenerational dialogue that explores issues of identity, history, and social criticism. The connection between Kippenberger and John Bock, whose practices share an irreverent, performative approach, adds yet another layer of richness to the Museum’s holdings with their playful use of the absurd to challenge the established rules in art.
Finally, the inclusion of Matthew Barney highlights the affinity between his practice and that of Kippenberger and Bock, since all three share an interest in appropriation, assemblage, and a fusion of mediums. These artworks not only expand the mediums and themes in the Collection but also reaffirm its commitment to contemporary art as a vehicle for questioning society and promoting a critical dialogue with the public.
The Gifted Works
John Bock (b. 1965, Gribbohm) is a sculptor, filmmaker, author, and illustrator who is regarded as one of the most influential artists of his generation. Bock’s work takes an unconventional and somewhat chaotic approach to capture his reflection on today’s society and social taboos.
In his piece Palms (2007), a film recounts the adventures of two German murderers on a trip through southern California in a Lincoln convertible. The large-scale installation accompanying the film features a Lincoln with huge, serpentine red tentacles spilling over the open hood, sweeping away everything in their way.
Matthew Barney (b. 1967, San Francisco) reflects on the limits of the body with a very particular vision of human existence. His five-part multimedia series CREMASTER (1994–2002) explores the transformation process via an eccentric world filled with fantastical characters.
The title comes from the male cremaster muscle, which controls the testicles’ contraction in response to external stimuli. Barney uses this metaphor to explore themes of ascent and descent, as well as sexuality, focusing on biological differentiation processes. CREMASTER 5 is an allusion to the state of higher sexual differentiation during the embryonic process.
Artist Kiki Smith (b. 1954, Nuremberg) addresses issues of gender, feminism, and sexuality in her works through innovative iconography that shifts between the scientific and the technological, yielding a reflective, poetic approach.
Her work Field Operation (1994) is comprised of miniature tables holding small organic elements. Its tiny scale leads to a shift in the public’s perception of their own bodies, while the organic elements lying on the tables refer to death and the evanescence of life.
The work of Kendell Geers (b. 1968, Johannesburg) is the outcome of his own experience as a white citizen in apartheid-era South Africa. As a politically and socially committed artist, his works question politics and the racial and religious stereotypes of today’s society.
With the piece Akropolis Now (2004), Geers conveys the dichotomy between attraction and repulsion. The work’s title refers to the Acropolis of Athens, and specifically the Parthenon, a temple dedicated to Athena, the Greek goddess of war and justice. It also references Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now, exploring the dark potential for violence and cruelty inside every person.’
This artwork appears to be a beautiful object, but it turns dangerous when looked at closely: a shiny wire mesh with sharpened blades that bears heavy symbolism.
The Guyton/Walker (2004, New York) is the artist duo of Wade Guyton (b. 1972) and Kelley Walker (b. 1969), whose artistic practices share an exploration of the intersection between art and technology.
In Untitled (2008), a group of paint cans with brightly colored labels is stacked in a corner amidst printed canvases. The consumer-themed images and motifs were digitally produced, and their application onto everyday objects transforms the images by giving them texture and a spatial dimension.
Martin Kippenberger (b. 1953, Dortmund; d. 1997, Vienna) was the author of a prolific artistic oeuvre in his brief 44-year life. Controversial and sarcastic, his work lies between the conceptual and the controversial.
To Kippenberger, the best jokes were those that only had context but lacked wit, which helps make sense of Untitled (Invention of a joke) (1993). This painting shows a scene with no narrative, leaving the joke in the title to the viewer’s judgement, as they are forced to recreate its meaning to complete the work.
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