SCHIRN
KUNSTHALLE FRANKFURT
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GROTESQUE!
130 YEARS OF WITTY ART
March 27–June 9, 2003
Press preview: March 26, 2003, 11 a.m.
SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE FRANKFURT
Römerberg
60311 Frankfurt, Germany
phone: (+49-69) 29 98 82-0
fax: (+49-69) 29 98 82-240,
welcome@schirn.de
http://www.schirn.de
Image: Franz von Stuck,
“Dissonanz” (Disharmony), 1910, Oil on wood, 76,7 x 70 cm
Courtesy: Museum Villa Stuck, München
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GROTESQUE! 130 YEARS OF WITTY ART
The exhibition ”Grotesque! 130 Years of Witty Art” explores
a decisive
development of 20th-century art linked to the grotesque in the German
speaking countries. The grotesque, which the artists of the Ancient
World
were already interested in, constitutes a counterpoint in regard to the
world of truth and beauty and stands for the strange, the different
beyond
all orders and boundaries. Full of insolent wit, the impact of the
grotesque as a new aesthetic approach gained momentum especially in the
German speaking countries towards the end of the 19th century. While the
grotesque has been acknowledged as a fundamental literary and dramatic
stylistic form for quite some time, the exhibition ”Grotesque! 130
Years
of Witty Art” investigates its role in the fine arts for the first
time.
The presentation takes Arnold Böcklin’s grotesquely comical
pictorial
compositions from the end of the 19th century as its starting-point.
Based
on this still controversial artistic personality’s work, the
exhibition
outlines the emergence of ”a different modernity” with its
inherent
subversive power and grotesque wit – a development spanning from
Max
Klinger, Alfred Kubin, and Thomas Theodor Heine to Dada and contemporary
artistic positions such as those of Martin Kippenberger, Ulrike
Ottinger,
Sigmar Polke, Franz West, or Christian Jankowski and John Bock, both of
whom are preparing new works for the show at the Schirn Kunsthalle
Frankfurt.
In addition,”Grotesque! 130 Years of Witty Art” focuses on
the
relationship between the birth of the cabaret and the further
development
of fine art in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland – a context which
has
hardly been taken into account so far. This perspective includes the
Munich cabaret ”Die Elf Scharfrichter” (The Eleven
Executioners), Karl
Valentin’s grotesquely comical theater) as well as the Dadaist
”Cabaret
Voltaire”.
The exhibition ”Grotesque! 130 Years of Witty Art” is a
cooperation
between the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt and the Haus der Kunst, Munich.
It
will be shown in the Haus der Kunst in Munich from June 27 to September
14, 2003 after its presentation in Frankfurt from March 27 to June 9,
2003.
LIST OF ARTISTS: Hans Arp, Johannes Baargeld, John Bock, Arnold
Böcklin,
Günter Brus, Lovis Corinth, Max Ernst, Lyonel Feininger, Fischli &
Weiss,
George Grosz, John Heartfield, Raoul Hausmann, Thomas Theodor Heine,
Fritz
von Herzmanovsky-Orlando, Hannah Höch, Christian Jankowski, Martin
Kippenberger, Paul Klee, Max Klinger, Alfred Kubin, Markus Lüpertz,
Jonathan Meese, Emil Nolde, Ulrike Ottinger, Sigmar Polke, Arnulf
Rainer,
Dieter Roth, Gerhard Rühm, Tomas Schmit, Paul Scheerbart, Rudolf
Schlichter, Georg Scholz, Eugen Schönebeck, Thomas Schütte, Kurt
Schwitters, Franz von Stuck, Karl Valentin, Franz West, a.o. (as of
March
2003).
CATALOGUE: ”Grotesque! 130 Years of Insolent Art.” Edited by
Pamela Kort.
With a preface by Max Hollein and Chris Dercon and essays by Hanne
Bergius, Ralf Burmeister, Frances Connelly, Lisbeth Exner, Harald
Falckenberg, Michael Farin, Peter Jelavich, Pamela Kort, and Gregor
Wedekind. German, ca. 296 pages, ca. 170 color illustrations, ISBN
3-7913-2887-5 (hardcover trade edition), Prestel Verlag, Munich, Berlin,
London, New York.
DIRECTOR: Max Hollein
CURATOR: Pamela Kort
OPENING HOURS: Tue, Fri–Sun 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., Wed and Thur
10 a.m. – 10
p.m.
INFORMATION: http://www.schirn.de
PRESS CONTACT: Dorothea Apovnik, phone: (+49-69) 29 98 82-118, fax:
(+49)
29 98 82-240, e-mail: presse@schirn.de, http://www.schirn.de (texts and
pictures for download under PRESS).
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