Exhibition program 2018

The year 2018 begins with a highlight, Basquiat. Boom for Real (February 16–May 27, 2018). More than 30 years after Jean-Michel Basquiat’s last exhibition in Germany, the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt is devoting—organized in collaboration with the Barbican Centre, London—a major survey to this American artist. Basquiat (1960–1988) is acknowledged today as one of the most significant painters of the 20th century. Featuring more than 100 works, the exhibition is the first to focus on his relationship to music, text, film and television, placing his work within a broader cultural context. 

Parallel to this, the Schirn presents a major exhibition on the repoliticization of contemporary art. Power to the People. Political Art Now (March 21–May 27, 2018) brings together international artistic positions which can be read as seismographs of contemporary political activity. It focuses on fundamental issues and the examination of the phenomena and possibilities of political participation. The Schirn unites installations, photographs, videos, paintings, and sculptures by Phyllida Barlow, Andrea Bowers, Julius von Bismarck, Sam Durant, Omer Fast, Adelita Husni-Bey, Hiwa K, Ahmet Öğüt, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Forensic Architecture, amongst others.

In the summer, award-winning video and installation artist Neïl Beloufa (August 23–October 28, 2018) will be realizing a unique project by transforming the Schirn into a stage. Beloufa (*1985) will create sculptural stages in various spaces outside the classic exhibition areas of the Schirn in which he presents his most recent cinematic works.

With the exhibition King of the Animals. Wilhelm Kuhnert and the Image of Africa ​​(October 25, 2018–January 27, 2019), the Schirn is presenting the first comprehensive retrospective on the life and work of Wilhelm Kuhnert (1865–1926). The artist shaped the concept of Africa in both Europe and the United States more than any other artist of his time. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he was one of the first European artists to travel through the German colonies of North and East Africa, which were still largely unexplored at the time. In the exhibition Kuhnert’s work is not only seen as a mirror of the history of art and natural science, but also against the background of the history of colonialism.

At the same time, the Schirn is dedicating an extensive thematic exhibition to the recurring fascination of Wilderness (November 1, 2018–January 27, 2019). With important works from 1900 to the present by some 30 artists, it does not only shed light on the phenomenon of the wilderness in terms of iconography, but also shows it as a principle and motor of artistic creative work. Artists have repeatedly been drawn to that which is wild, untamed, uncultivated since the beginning of the aesthetic modern age. The “wilderness” has always also served as a projection surface for anything that was different and foreign, for the longing for a primordial life beyond the boundaries of civilization. In today’s “Anthropocene,” the utopia of a natural state remote from culture and human influence seems anachronistic. And yet the examination of traditional images and fictions of wilderness seem more alive than ever before. 

In addition, Maria Loboda will develop new works for the freely accessible Rotunda of the Schirn. They will be on view from November 16, 2018 to February 10, 2019.

In 2018 the Schirn will continue its monthly series Double Feature. International video artists present a work from their own oeuvre, followed by their favorite film. The Schirn has already included more than 60 artists in the Double Feature series, for example, Monira Al Qadiri, Eli Cortiñas, Beatrice Gibson, Timur Si-Qin, Pilvi Takala, Tris Vonna-Michell, and Andrew Norman Wilson, whose extensive interviews can be seen online on the Schirn’s YouTube channel. For 2018, screenings by Lili Reynaud-Dewar and Amie Siegel, and other artists are planned.

You will find the complete exhibition program of the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt in 2018 here.

Director: Dr. Philipp Demandt
Press contact: Pamela Rohde (Head of Press/Public Relations):
presse [​at​] schirn.de / T (+49 69) 29 98 82 148
Press material: www.schirn.de/en/ (texts, images, and films can be downloaded under PRESS)