Anna Oppermann
dal 9/9/2010 al 29/10/2010
Segnalato da
9/9/2010
Anna Oppermann
Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin
The show presents one of Oppermann's major 'ensembles': 'Being an Artist (Drawing from Nature, for Example, Linden Blossom Petals), 1969-1985', which was first shown at documenta 6 in 1977. Oppermann's ensembles - evolving full-scale picture installations - begin as a small still life consisting of a found object that the artist treated as an allegory of a certain question.
From September 11th to October 30th 2010 Barbara Thumm Gallery is pleased to present Anna
Oppermann (1940 – 1993) with one of her major "ensembles": "Being an Artist (Drawing from
Nature, for Example, Linden Blossom Petals), 1969-1985", which was first shown at documenta 6
in 1977. Barbara Thumm Gallery represents Anna Oppermann’s estate since spring 2010.
In the seventies, Anna Oppermann developed a radical and controversial artistic language. Her
intricate assemblages of drawings, photographs and objects grew into large scale overboarding
spacial installations for which the artist coined the phrase "ensemble".
The exhibition catalogue to documenta 6 concludes the following to Anna Oppermann’s work:
"Anna Oppermann’s ensembles embody and produce fields of association that emanate from a
simple object. To begin with, as an almost arbitrary positing, there is a linden flower bract: the artist
draws this leaf and thereby integrates her own physical position – a protruding knee, the jutting
edge of a table – into the drawing. This drawing is then photographed, making the drawing and the
photograph the first combinatorial level of the ensemble that determines the systematically induced
associations: drawing, being a draughtsman, being an artist, art and society, etc. Earlier
photographs are incorporated into the higher-level context of larger tableaus, only to revert to being
details in later, even more extensive photographs. Oppermann’s horror vacui causes the drawn,
photographed and quoted details to expand over many years into ‘object altars’."
The curator and art critic Ute Vorkoeper will reinstall the ensemble. Vorkoeper has worked closely
together with Anna Oppermann and will realize the reconstruction following the guidelines which
Oppermann herself had elaborated for the installations of her ensembles.
Biographical information to Anna Oppermann:
Anna Oppermann (1940 - 1993) gained international fame during the seventies. She was featured at
documenta 6 (1977), at the Venice Biennial in the overview show "Art of the seventies" (1980) as
well as documenta 8 (1987).
In 2007/2008 the Württembergische Kunstverein Stuttgart as well as the Generali Foundation in
Vienna presented a large retrospective of Anna Oppermann’s ensemble art and published an
extensive catalogue on her pieces for the first time after the artist’s death.
Press contact:
Ute Weingarten, Elisabethkirchstraße 15, 10115 Berlin
Phone: +49 30 21961843, E-Mail: artpress@uteweingarten.de
Image: Anna Oppermann: Being an Artist (Drawing from Nature, for Example, Linden
Blossom Petals), 1969-1985
Opening Friday, September 10th , 7 – 9 pm
Galerie Barbara Thumm
Markgrafenstraße 68, D - 10969 Berlin
Opening hours: Tue–Sat 11am - 6pm
free admission