John Baldessari: The Städel Paintings

“200 Years Städel Museum," the bicentennial celebrations of Germany’s oldest civic museum foundation, are culminating with a solo exhibition of works by the internationally renowned American artist John Baldessari (b. 1931), taking place from November 5, 2015 to January 24, 2016. For John Baldessari. The Städel Paintings, the artist—one of the most influential alive today—executed a total of 16 new pieces related explicitly to the Städel Museum collection, which spans 700 years of European art. A number of very different works from the Städel holdings—masterpieces, but also unusual finds in the storage depots by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Agnolo Bronzino, Dirck van Baburen, Bartolomeo Veneto, Justus Juncker, Erró, Maria Lassnig and others—served as visual material for his large-scale collages. Taking these selected works as his point of departure, the artist explores the relationship not only between painting and photography, but also that between image and language. In the process, he not only isolates specific details of the Städel paintings, but also partially overpaints those details and combines them with texts formally reminiscent of excerpts from Hollywood film scripts to create large horizontally or vertically divided diptychs. The result is a suspenseful and complex consonance/dissonance that queries old and new art alike and breaks with established patterns of perception.

“The fact that John Baldessari—a true icon of the contemporary art world—has devoted himself to our collection on such a profound level underscores the international appeal of the Städel and its programme. We are extremely proud to have this opportunity to show Baldessari’s new works at the Städel Museum," comments Städel director Max Hollein.

“Baldessari’s Städel Paintings bear witness to a sense of both respect and irony towards the history of painting, as well as to that different, better world promised us by painting over centuries—and at the same time, they cannot but mistrust that promise," observes Martin Engler, curator of the exhibition and head of the Städel Museum’s contemporary art collection. With this show of current works by John Baldessari based on the Städel collection, the Frankfurt museum is also inquiring into the present status of painting. At the end of its bicentennial year, the Städel—as a “painting museum”—thus builds a bridge from the past to the immediate present and takes a suspenseful look ahead to the future.

Director: Max Hollein
Curator: Dr Martin Engler, head of the collection of contemporary art, Städel Museum
Press contact: Axel Braun (head of press/public relations):
T +49 (0)69 605098 170 / F +49 (0)69 605098 188 / presse@staedelmuseum.de
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