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24/1/2007

Gert & Uwe Tobias

Spruth Magers Projekte, Munich

Die Hora nimmt kein Ende

Monika Spruth and Philomene Magers are pleased to be able to present the first solo exhibition of Gert and Uwe Tobias in Munich.

The exhibition comprises four large-format woodcuts, numerous works on paper as well as three sculptures. Together with the coloured walls, the resulting staging clearly articulates the relationships between the works, which have all been specially created for the exhibition.

Gerd and Uwe Tobias’ visual world is a hybrid. They quote from the history of art as well as from folk art; from constructivism and votive pictures; they bring flea market finds together with collages from fashion magazines. Their approach to this is very serious, sometimes seemingly scientific — one sculpture in the exhibition is a glass showcase containing photos, collages, drawings and texts — but also ironic.

The walls in the exhibition are painted dark red; the expression “oxblood red" springs to mind. Selected wall sections, such as projections and the wall molding are kept in white, creating the impression of fabric wall coverings, as seen in museums back in the nineteenth century or those devoted to local history.

The exhibition is tightly packed; everything is interrelated: the sculpture tensioned between ceiling and floor made of black cylindrical and disc-shaped wooden elements creates a stylised flower which can be seen as constructivist in nature. A real rose stands in a vase in the second, smaller sculpture. In the woodcut in the entrance area, a circle is growing out of a rectangle, which thus becomes a flowerpot. Its case stands in front of a painting which in turn adopts its form. Several framed drawings composed of typewriter characters are arranged so that they resemble a flower climbing up the wall. The woodcuts are very graphic and comparatively simple in design, yet the numerous super-imposed layers of paint result in a sense of opulence; the concept HORROR VACUI, the fear of emptiness, comes to mind. As in medieval art, which sought to leave no room for evil by filling every empty space with ornaments, the gaps in this exhibition are full of associations, levels of colours and tales being taught.

The white cube would not be the appropriate representational form here. Without being sentimental or retrospective, an atmosphere imposes itself on the exhibition which is reminiscent of pictures, places, things, stories and situations as they used to be, and yet at the same time it seems very modern. The biographical aspect of Gert and Uwe Tobias’s work is possibly the connecting factor: the way the 33-year- old artists look at their Rumanian homeland (which they left as teenagers) is considered and yet immediate. Their approach is authentic AND ironic.

The works of Gert and Uwe Tobias confirm yet again that the dichotomies of abstract versus representational, form versus content, high versus low, are obsolete. They are nothing more than artificial constructions used by academics and critics in their attempt to capture that which refuses to be defined. They produce a complex visual world with their pictures and sculptures, which however generates a surprisingly coherent atmosphere. “Hora", which is mentioned in the title of the exhibition, and seems to go on ad infinitem, is a Rumanian folk dance where a group of dancers move in a circle. It is a fitting image for the exhibition, in which all the elements seem to interrelate while circling each other.

Gert and Uwe Tobias were born in Kronstadt (Brasov), Rumania, in 1973. They came to Germany in 1985, and currently live and work in Cologne. Their work was most recently seen in a solo exhibition at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. A further solo exhibition will follow in March at the Kunstverein Heilbronn.
They participated in the 2005 “Kunstlerbruder" exhibition at the Haus der Kunst in Munich. In 2004 they were awarded the Peter-Mertes- Stipendium in connection with an exhibition at the Bonner Kunstverein.

Image: Gert & Uwe Tobias, untitled, 2006 (211 x 177 cm) GUT/0436

Spruth Magers Projekte, Munich
Ludwigstrasse 7 - Munchen
Opening Hours: Tuesday - Friday, 11am - 2pm and 3pm - 6pm, Saturday 11am - 2pm and by appointment

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