Retrospective. Works from various periods of his career. First and foremost, the exhibition includes what might count as the artist's earliest piece: 'Photographic Notes, documenta 2, 1959' (1959), a series of 26 black and white photographs taken at Documenta II, where the artist worked as an assistant while on break from his studies at the Art Academy in Kassel.
The Paula Cooper Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of works by Hans Haacke, which will open on January 11, 2008, at 534 West 21st Street. The exhibition will run through February 16. This is the artist’s second one-person exhibition at Paula Cooper Gallery.
Hans Haacke will present works from various periods of his career. First and foremost, the
exhibition will include what might count as Haacke’s earliest piece: Photographic Notes,
documenta 2, 1959 (1959), a series of 26 black and white photographs taken at Documenta II,
where the artist worked as an assistant while on break from his studies at the Art Academy in
Kassel. The photographs record one of the first confrontations of the German public after the
Nazi period with modern and contemporary art, including works by artists such as Mondrian,
Pollock and Kandinsky. This series of photographs, first shown in the exhibition “Stations of
Modernism” at the Berlinische Galerie (1988), has been described as a key early work evincing
Haacke’s nascent interest in the sociology of art and his awareness of the dependency of art on its context, which informs so much of his later work.
Also on view will be Wide White Flow (1967), a large section of white fabric measuring 32 ½ x
38 feet, which is activated by air blown by electric fans. The piece belongs to a series of works
in which Haacke explored natural processes such as wind, electricity and condensation.
Paula Cooper Gallery
534 West 21st Street - New York