A cosmos. The exhibition conjures an imaginary universe in which Trockel's own artwork shares space with objects and artifacts, spanning different eras and cultures, that map her artistic interests. Her well-known disregard for the conventional hierarchies in the visual arts, together with her longstanding appreciation of media and materials once categorized as crafts or vernacular art forms, is demonstrated throughout the exhibition.
In October 2012, the New Museum will present “Rosemarie Trockel: A Cosmos.”
Organized by Rosemarie Trockel and Lynne Cooke for the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía,
this exhibition—encompassing all three main gallery floors of the Museum—will present a world shaped
by Trockel’s ideas and affinities. The exhibition conjures an imaginary universe in which Trockel’s own
artwork shares space with objects and artifacts, spanning different eras and cultures, that map her
artistic interests.
“Rosemarie Trockel: A Cosmos” will be on view at the New Museum from October 24, 2012–January 20,
2013. The Museum’s presentation of the exhibition has
been curated by Lynne Cooke, former Deputy Director
and Chief Curator, Museo Centro de Arte Reina
Sofía, in collaboration with Rosemarie Trockel. The
New Museum’s presentation has been organized in
conjunction with the artist and curator by Massimiliano
Gioni, Associate Director and Director of Exhibitions,
and Jenny Moore, Associate Curator.
Lisa Phillips, Toby Devan Lewis Director, New
Museum, said, “Rosemarie Trockel is one of the
leading artists of her generation and most respected
German artists of the past forty years. It is an
extraordinary honor for the New Museum to present “A
Cosmos,” which will be the most comprehensive survey
of her work in the US to date, and the most significant
museum presentation in New York since a show of her video work at Dia Art Foundation more than a
decade ago. With this new exhibition, we will be able to offer the general public a rare view into the mind of
one of our most important artists, with a presentation that is fresh in its totality.”
Since the early 1970s, Rosemarie Trockel has produced an
impressive body of work that includes drawing, collage, installation,
“knit paintings,” ceramics, videos, furniture, clothing, and books.
She brings together a range of associations and references from
art history, philosophy, theology, and the natural sciences. For
“A Cosmos,” Trockel places her work in the company of others
whom she regards as kindred spirits. Installations created for the
New Museum illuminate the intellectual and formal connections
between her practice and a range of historical figures including self-
taught artists James Castle and Morton Bartlett, and the botanist/
mathematician José Celestino Mutis. Objects whose impetus
was primarily aesthetic will be juxtaposed with pieces that more
conventionally belong to the realm of science. Trockel’s roughhewn
glazed ceramics from the past several years will be displayed along
with Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka’s delicate glass models of sea
creatures created in the nineteenth century. A selection of new work
by Trockel can be examined in conjunction with watercolors by the seventeenth-century artist Maria
Sybilla Merian, whose impeccably precise yet beautiful renderings of flora and fauna proved invaluable to
scientific study.
Trockel’s well-known disregard for the conventional hierarchies in the visual arts, together with her
longstanding appreciation of media and materials once categorized as crafts or vernacular art forms,
is demonstrated throughout the exhibition. She has adopted a fluid and radical approach to gender,
combining activities typically considered feminine in terms of production with aggressive mechanical
and industrial forms. This is emphasized through the inclusion of Judith Scott’s obsessively wrapped
yarn sculptures alongside Ruth Francken’s plastic and metal assemblages from the 1970s. In addition,
Trockel’s celebrated “knit paintings” will be integrated into the exhibition, along with new works made of
ceramic.
About the Artist
Rosemarie Trockel was born in 1952 in Schwerte, Germany. She studied at the Kölner Werkschulen in
Cologne, Germany. Since 1998, she has been a professor at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.
She lives and works in Cologne. She has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at venues
including: the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Dia Center for the Arts, New York; Whitechapel Gallery,
London; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and the Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland. In 2004, she received
the Wolfgang Hahn Prize, resulting in the one-woman exhibition “Post-Menopause” which premiered at the
Museum Ludwig in Cologne before traveling to the Museo Nazionale Delle Arti Del XXI Secolo in Rome.
Trockel represented Germany at the 1999 Venice Biennale and participated in Documenta X in 1997.
Catalogue
The exhibition is accompanied by a 217-page catalogue, produced by Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
and published by the Monacelli Press, featuring essays by Lynne Cooke, Dore Ashton, Suzanne Hudson,
and Anne Wagner.
Tour
After its presentation at the New Museum, the exhibition will travel to the Serpentine Gallery, London. The
exhibition was first on view at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía from May 23–September 24,
2012.
Exhibition Support
This exhibition is organized by the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in collaboration with the
New Museum.
PRESS CONTACTS:
Gabriel Einsohn, Communications Director
press@newmuseum.org
Andrea Schwan, Andrea Schwan Inc.
info@andreaschwan.com
Press preview Tuesday October 23, 2012
9:30 AM to 12 PM,
10 AM Remarks
New Museum
235 Bowery -New York, NY 10002
Hours & Admission
Public Hours:
Wednesday 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Thursday 11 a.m.–9 p.m.
Friday–Sunday 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Museum Night: Free Admission on Thursday Evenings from 7 p.m.–9 p.m.
Admissions
General $14 Under 18 Free
Seniors $12 Members Free
Students $10
Get tickets