ABSTRACT //// SCULPTURE

It has been around a hundred years since art – at least in part – became non-representational. Since then, abstraction has never had a monopoly, but there have been periods of Western dominance, followed by figurative counter-movements. The abstract/figurative and formalism/realism oppositions were not only artistically but also socially ideological, especially in the post-war period. However, a generation that experienced its formative artistic socialisation after 1990 found abstraction to be a largely de-ideologised concept that was no longer subject to political or aesthetic purity rules. Pre- and post-war modernism is a quarry with different deposits for the generation of artists discussed here, which can be recombined in the sense of musical sampling in order to subject them to a contemporary interpretation. Works from the last ten years document the topicality of a New Abstraction in the spectrum of contemporary art.

ABSTRAKT //// SKULPTUR is the first survey exhibition of contemporary non-representational sculpture in a German institution. The works enter into a dialogue with the sculptures of Georg Kolbe, one of the most important figurative sculptors of modernism.

Artists: Christian Andersen, Florian Baudrexel, Wolfgang Flad, Martin Flemming, Nadja Frank, Amelie Grözinger, Knut Henrik Henriksen, Gregor Hildebrandt, Olaf Holzapfel, Jeroen Jacobs, Isabel Kerkermeier, Thomas Kiesewetter, Karsten Konrad, Gereon Krebber, Alicja Kwade, Wilhelm Mundt, Manfred Pernice, Bettina Pousttchi, Thomas Scheibitz, Felix Schramm, Katja Strunz, Johannes Weiß