A selection of 12 canvas by the german painter. For the first tiime ever Abts' paintings will be accompanied by a series of small drawings that she has created over many years alongside her paiintings, in order to work out the lines, shapes and spatial relationship within her delicate compositions.
Born in 1967, German artist Tomma Abts ranks among the outstanding female painters of her generation. She was awarded the Turner Prize in 2006, and her work has featured in solo exhibitions at such renowned institutions as Kunsthalle Basel, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles
and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. The show at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf will be the London-based artist’s first solo exhibition at an institution in the Rhineland, where she has been teaching since summer 2010, having taken up a professorship at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.
A slow and rigorous production process is a distinguishing feature of Tomma Abts’ work. Although she follows a predetermined method in her painting, applying purely geometrical shapes to a classic 48 x 38 cm portrait format in layer after layer of oil and acrylic paint, her painting is far removed from serial production. The individuality of each of her pieces can, instead, be attributed to a production process where each image is shaped by continual questioning, and by constant construction and deconstruction. The rich, often muted colour tones lend each work its own mood, which draws the beholder into a world of intimate imagery. Only on closer inspection do the underlying layers peek through the surface here and there, revealing faint patterns and isolated lines, and casting Abts’ work as a reflection on the painting process itself.
The intensity of this artistic process is reflected in Abts’ exhibitions, which present each of her works as an individual, coherent image. Kunsthalle Düsseldorf has chosen a selection of twelve canvases to present in its main hall. For the first time ever, Abts’ paintings will be accompanied by a series of small, previously barely known drawings that she has created over many years alongside her paintings in order to work out the lines, shapes and spatial relationships within her delicate compositions.
Image: Tomma Abts, Tys, 2010, Acryl und Öl auf Leinwand, 48 x 38 cm, Privatsammlung Köln
In parallel the Kunsthalle is opening the exhibition:
Seitenlichtsaal: Raumproduktion
15.07. - 26.08 2011
Artists: Matthias Böttger, something fantastic (Elena Schütz, Julian
Schubert, Leonard Streich), Larissa Fassler, Julika Gittner, Juul Hondius,
Ingrid Hora, Jennifer Morone, Michl Schmidt, Alex Schweder, Peter Wendl.
The artists analyze the social, cultural, economic and political
parameters of space production with their artistic interventions.
Curator: Matthias Böttger
Press contact:
Dirk Schewe Tel.: +49 (0)211 - 89 96256 Fax: +49 (0)211 - 89 29576
presse@kunsthalle-duesseldorf.de
Opening friday, 15 July 2011, at 7pm
Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
Grabbeplatz 4 - 40213 Dusseldorf Germany
Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, public holidays: 11 am – 6 pm
Admission: Adults EUR 5.50, Concessions EUR 3.50