I’m Looking for a Choir that Still Sings and a Laundry that Still Washes

I’m Looking for a Choir that Still Sings and a Laundry that Still Washes

Ludwig Museum—Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest

Pál Gerber
Honorable Showing
1992
Plywood, oil, wood fibre, 40x35cm
Private collection

June 16, 2010

I’m Looking for a Choir
that Still Sings and a
Laundry that Still Washes

Pál Gerber – A Retrospective

17 June – 15 August 2010

PALACE OF ARTS
H-1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell u. 1.
info [​at​] ludwigmuseum.hu

www.ludwigmuseum.hu

Pál Gerber’s career began in the late eighties, during the last period of the so called “goulash communism”. His childhood years in Tatabánya and the industrial milieu of the city left a strong mark on Gerber, who later moved to Budapest. His works bring back the well-known, smiled upon or rather repulsive slogans, object culture, colour schemes, ever familiar greyness, thought associations and object ensembles of the Kádár era. As a young painter, the new economic and political climate of the nineties elicited a shift in his art, which did, however, retain its fundamental feature – that is, above all, a continuous dialogue with the surrounding world and with the visible and invisible layers of mass culture. With his precisely articulated motifs – be it a highlighted excerpt, a stumbled-upon classified ad or a visual element – he creates unexpected associations and enigmatic references to history and culture.

Pál Gerber’s individual exhibition is the next event of the Ludwig Museum mid – career retrospective series introducing an artists’ oeuvres. Deriving from the material of the legendary Kék Acél (Blue Steel) exhibition held in the year of the political -changes (1989), Ludwig Museum’s show draws an imaginary arc tracing Gerber’s 25-year-long journey as an artist. This is a varied oeuvre in terms of genres as well. Instead of addressing this diversity through the obvious chronological approach, however, the exhibition uses juxtaposition in its interpretation of the material. Thus it seeks to establish a dialogue both with Gerber’s oeuvre and between the individual works as well. Although the audience may have seen Gerber’s work at a number of exhibitions through the years, such a multifaceted dialogue has not been realised before.

In addition to such new works as the According to Law series (2010), The Truth Sets You Free (2010), and Dust on Modernism (2010), Pál Gerber’s earlier installations will also be featured, including Hope in Skilled Labour (1994), and, exhibited for the first time in Hungary, I Don’t Like Pessimism (1992). His works commenting on the world, the actors, the trends and the operating mechanisms of art (The Weight of Art – Uplifting Art, 2010; Price Pictures, 2008; Creative Artist Hard at Work at Developing His Own Unique Style of Form, 1991/2010), and his more explicitly political and socially critical pieces (Ochre Flag, 2005; Oil Stain, We Are a Small Country, 1992; Living without Self-Critique, 2006/2010) will also be presented. Gerber usually highlights the banal, unarticulated, lurking repressions and bittersweet truths of the everyday world that surrounds us (Woman’s Handbag with a Broken String of Beads, 2003; Gabi’s Short Story, 2005/2010; Object Caught on the Chandelier, 1998).

The 280-page catalogue of the exhibition attempts to foster a deeper understanding of the artist’s oeuvre. Authors: Sándor Hornyik, Gábor Pataki, János Sturcz, Erzsébet Tatai. Editor: Kata Oltai.

The curator of the exhibition is Kata Oltai.

Advertisement
RSVP
RSVP for I’m Looking for a Choir that Still Sings and a Laundry that…
Ludwig Museum—Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
June 16, 2010

Thank you for your RSVP.

Ludwig Museum—Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest will be in touch.

Subscribe

e-flux announcements are emailed press releases for art exhibitions from all over the world.

Agenda delivers news from galleries, art spaces, and publications, while Criticism publishes reviews of exhibitions and books.

Architecture announcements cover current architecture and design projects, symposia, exhibitions, and publications from all over the world.

Film announcements are newsletters about screenings, film festivals, and exhibitions of moving image.

Education announces academic employment opportunities, calls for applications, symposia, publications, exhibitions, and educational programs.

Sign up to receive information about events organized by e-flux at e-flux Screening Room, Bar Laika, or elsewhere.

I have read e-flux’s privacy policy and agree that e-flux may send me announcements to the email address entered above and that my data will be processed for this purpose in accordance with e-flux’s privacy policy*

Thank you for your interest in e-flux. Check your inbox to confirm your subscription.