Isa Genzken Meets Liebieghaus

The Liebieghaus is forging a unique link between the present and the past by juxtaposing powerful works by Isa Genzken with its sculpture collection: 18 works by the renowned artist are on view alongside ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman, as well as medieval and modern-era works from the museum’s outstanding collection.

“Isa Genzken’s works represent a tireless artistic engagement with our cultural history and its relevance to the contemporary world. It is a great pleasure and enrichment for us to be able to present her works in the midst of the Liebieghaus collection, which spans 5,000 years. For our visitors, such encounters with contemporary art in an international historical collection are always particularly stimulating, because they allow the history of sculpture up to the present day to be told and, above all, impressively experienced”, says Philipp Demandt, Director of the Liebieghaus Sculpture Collection.

Isa Genzken (b. 1948) has been a major influence on the international art scene since the 1980s. Her diverse oeuvre encompasses sculpture, collage, painting, film and photography and is characterized by the combination of personal experience with extensive references to art history, architecture and modernism. Often dealing with the remnants of material culture and the decay of architectural structures, she uses her own biography to explore central themes such as identity, beauty and the role of the individual in society. She combines an impressive variety of materials—from textiles, cement and glass to stuffed animals and aeroplane windows—to create enigmatic sculptures that reflect the fragility of the modern world. Her artworks challenge social and cultural ideals, including those associated with the notion of marble-white ancient sculpture.

The exhibition takes as its point of departure the polychromy of statues, a subject for which the Liebieghaus Sculpture Collection is internationally renowned for its research and educational work. Isa Genzken has taken up these scientific findings in various works and translated them into her own formal language. Among the artworks on display at the Liebieghaus are her reinterpretations of the casts of Nefertiti, as well as works from 2016 for which she created a collage from numerous pages of a catalogue for the exhibition “GODS IN COLOR” (2010). Key sculptures from Genzken’s oeuvre, such as Fenster (1990) and Weltempfänger ‘Berlin’ (1991), as well as the film Die kleine Bushaltestelle (Gerüstbau) (2012), are included in the presentation at the Liebieghaus, providing a broad insight into her work.

Vinzenz Brinkmann, curator of the exhibition and Head of the Liebieghaus Department of Antiquities and Asia, explains: “Isa Genzken approaches the concept of sculpture with unmistakable humour and an extraordinary joy in experimentation. Her work, characterized by an impressive range and radicalism, demonstrates a remarkable ability to constantly reinvent herself. Rather than adhering to a clearly defined artistic signature, she creates artworks that subtly and directly reflect social issues and evoke a wide range of associations—without ever becoming clearly tangible. Particularly in her artworks on the polychromy of statues, which provoke and challenge our viewing habits, her joy in questioning truths we thought were certain is evident.”

After "Jeff Koons. The Sculptor" (2012) and "William Kentridge. O Sentimental Machine" (2018), "Isa Genzken Meets Liebieghaus" is the third contemporary art intervention at the Liebieghaus Sculpture Collection and extends into all areas of the permanent exhibition: from the Liebieghaus garden and the antiquities collection to the medieval and modern-era rooms.

Director: Dr Philipp Demandt, Liebieghaus Sculpture Collection
Curator: Prof Dr Vinzenz Brinkmann, Head of the Departments of Antiquities and Asia, Liebieghaus Sculpture Collection
Press contact: Pamela Rohde (Head of Press and Online Communication): presse@liebieghaus.de / T (+49 69) 605098 170
Press material: newsroom.liebieghaus.de/en (texts and images for download)