WEISSENSTADT.- Bartha Contemporary announces an exhibition of works by fourteen leading contemporary artists and architects entitled ‘Visiting An Imaginary Art Collector’ at the
Kleines Museum - Kultur auf der Peunt in Weissenstadt, Germany. The exhibition features works by Adam Barker-Mill, Jill Baroff, Deborah Berke, Hartmut Böhm, Anna Dickinson, Henrik Eiben, Alan Johnston, Julia Mangold, Stefana McClure, Mike Meiré, Shinichi Ogawa, Kate Shepherd, Joan Waltemath and Beat Zoderer and was curated by Niklas von Bartha.
Until March 1st 2014 the Kleines Museum - Kultur auf der Peunt in Weissenstadt has been transformed into the home of an imaginary art collector. Set as if the owner had just popped out to fetch some milk and furnished with classic modernist design pieces by Le Corbusier, Wagenfeld and Eileen Gray from the showroom of Schautz Bayreuth, the stage is set for an inclusive installation that diverges from the traditional museum format and returns the exhibition spaces into a domestic realm. Guided by the principles of the Gesamtkunstwerk the presentation showcases the interests of a discerning collector who values beauty and is strongly influenced by modernism and a Zen culture. These strongly reflect the core values of the museum’s sponsor PEMA Vollkorn-Spezialitäten Heinrich Leupoldt KG, one of Germany’s leading whole-grain bread bakers.
Highlights of the exhibition include a set of three Alvar Aalto Stool 60s, which were customized by Mike Meiré for Artek to celebrate the stools 80th Birthday. The stools are on special loan from the Aalto Museum in Helsinki. A suite of recent paintings on newspaper by Meiré have been installed alongside the stools.
British artist Adam Barker-Mill adopted one of his iconic light installations for a space linking two of the exhibition rooms. Two additional objects that rely on daylight or a singular light source are being shown in the two adjacent rooms.
British glass artist Anna Dickinson is exhibiting two of her most recent vessels, these display her extraordinary ability to combine glass elements with highly engineered man-made materials. The objects shown here will form part of the artist’s forthcoming mid-career retrospective at the Musée Ariana in Geneva.
Miniature architectural models by Shinichi Ogawa and a sculptural model by Deborah Berke illustrate work by two of the leading minimalist architects working in Japan and the USA respectively.
Paintings by Scottish artist Alan Johnston, who recently completed a monumental ceiling-drawing at Tate Britain and has previously collaborated on several site specific commissions with Shinichi Ogawa, explore systems that relate to proportional rules found in architecture.
Architectural space is also an important element in Kate Shepherd’s work. Her highly reflective paintings draw the viewer into a suggested space outlined by a white line drawing and juxtapose this with a rendition of the space that surrounds the work and the viewer.
American artists Jill Baroff and Joan Waltemath are both represented by works on paper that together with works by Northern-Irish artist Stefana McClure are being exhibited in an installation that reminiscent of the hanging in the St. Petersburg Hermitage or the Treasure Rooms at the Menil Collection in Houston. Reflecting the imaginary collector’s interest in minimal drawings and the world we life in. Baroff’s Tide Drawings are a perfect example of apparently highly abstract works that explore a factual natural phenomenon, in this instance the periodical tidal shifts along the coast. Stefana McClure’s Films on Paper capture time and emotion in a single frame by depicting the combined subtitles of an entire movie, more recent colour-blind drawings explore the notion of seeing - in some cases seeing what is suggested rather than physically present. Joan Waltemath on the other hand fills in the blanks, evolving from a grid system that is rendered using the dimensions of architectural spaces the artist builds up intricate fields within an linear abstract composition.
German artist Hartmut Böhm, one of the leading protagonists for mathematically determined non-figurative abstraction in Europe, exhibits two seminal works from his series of progressions towards infinity. The routed lines render linear progressions at predetermined angles that can be repeated endlessly.
German artist Julia Mangold presents a sculptural work from her new wall sculpture series executed in wood. Shifting volumes push into the space and recede, the delicate interplay created is further animated as the viewer passes in front of the work. The seductive and highly saturated lacquer and graphite surfaces further enhance the immense physical presence of these mesmerizing reliefs.
Recent works by German artist Henrik Eiben and Swiss artist Beat Zoderer complete the installation and introduce a very playful aspect into this exhibition that centers on refined abstract works. Zoderer’s Flickenball an assemblage of painted steel strips is a perfect example of the artist’s intuitive working processes, which often involve everyday materials that the artist applies within his geometric compositions. Equally Henrik Eiben plays with a geometric vocabulary that is not burdened by a romantic notion for constructive and concrete art. In this exhibition a colour-full frieze of cut glass elements hovers above the viewer’s head. A sensual experience of reflected colour is carefully juxtaposed with the dangerous edges of the glass sheets that are mounted precariously.
It is a happy coincidence that this exhibition coincides with Elmgreen & Dragset exhibition “Tomorrow” at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the recent revaluation of various Wunderkammer installations in museums across the world. The aim of this exhibition is to showcase a real-world scenario that invites viewers to reflect on their own homes. It is however no coincidence that the imaginary collector is watching Jacques Tati’s 1958 film ‘Mon Oncle’, as we all sometimes struggle with the demands of modern life.
