Jiri Georg Dokoupil
Robert Fleck
Wilfried Dickhoff
Josefina Ayerza
Thomas Hoppe
Slavoj Zizek
Painting in the 21st century. Works 1981 – 2005
The exhibition at Hamburg's Deichtorhallen is intended as a rediscovery. Dokoupil
took part in the opening show at Deichtorhallen back in 1989 and is today again
exerting a considerable influence on young artists, and here he is presented as one
of the most exciting contemporary artists. With new and hitherto unknown blocks of
works, including his Leopard, Buddha and Whip cycles of recent years, the exhibition
is the first in Germany to focus on the full range of Dokoupil the
"inventor-machine".
The exhibition includes 200 paintings and sculptures from 29 series, dating from
1981 to 2005, kindly loaned to us by countless international institutions and
collectors. Dokoupil himself has devised a spectacular one-man museum specially for
the Deichtorhallen show featuring 29 rooms and 29 different styles.
As of "documenta" 1982 the now 50 year-old Czech-German painter decisively
influenced the young painters of the 1980s. Dokoupil's witty and marvelously
accomplished paintings also had a strong impact on the international art world. His
oeuvre starts from a use of archetypal pictorial themes, which he contrasts to the
contemporary everyday consumer world. Since 1986 Dokoupil has been painting without
a brush – he lived first in Cologne, and today in Berlin, Prague, Madrid, and on the
Canary Islands. He has instead opted for a wide variety of different techniques,
such as candles, car tires and color spray paints. This has given rise to an
exceptionally varied oeuvre which displays the broad spectrum of painterly
possibilities available today.
In early 2006 the exhibition will go on show at the Prague National Gallery.
Catalogue
The 304 page catalogue has been published by DuMont-Verlag in a bilingual
German/English edition. It is edited by Robert Fleck and Wilfried Dickhoff, with
contributions by Josefina Ayerza, Robert Fleck, Thomas Hoppe, and Slavoj Zizek.
Press office:
Angelika Leu-Barthel Tel.: +49-40-32103250 Fax: +49-40-32103230
Deichtorhallen Hamburg
House of Photography – Contemporary Art
Deichtorstrasse 1-2 20095 Hamburg, Gemany