calendario eventi  :: 

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25/9/2009

Two exhibitions

Museum Ludwig, Koln

Leni Hoffmann
RGB
26.09.2009 – 28.03.2010

Curator: Katia Baudin

The Museum Ludwig is home to one of the world's largest collections of the Russian Avant-Garde. The artworks of Leni Hoffmann (b. 1962) seek their own answers to questions that remind us of those posed by the Suprematists and Constructivists. The works that she has developed for the Museum Ludwig refer to one of the most radical acts in the history of art: Aleksandr Rodchenko's declaration of the death of painting with his triptych in red, yellow and blue. Following this gesture he then advocated for an art that would be socially aware and nearer to everyday life. Hoffmann brings the ideas of Rodchenko and his compatriot El Lissitzky to a logical conclusion in that she releases painting from the surface of the canvas and brings it into the space of the museum. Her works have a strong architectonic character and play with our perception of space. Hoffmann infiltrates and expands upon the building by finding discreet, overlooked attributes and bringing them to our attention. The building becomes a walkable organism. Her works are site-specific and public. She makes visible the unusual elements of a familiar, everyday environment. Through her temporary "paintings in space" the art begins a dialogue among artwork, space and viewer. The colourful, geometric works invite visitors to use and become a part of them.

flipper
"flipper" transforms the entry hall into an exhibition space. By sitting down on the parts, the visitor him-/herself becomes a part of the sculpture. The circular area of modelling clay underneath the concrete benches records the footsteps of visitors throughout the run of the exhibition.

memnun oldum
Leni Hoffmann is interested in places that constantly change, like intersections. The spot directly next to the subway on the south side of the museum is one of them. A glowing cushion, visible from many angles in the direct vicinity, invites passers-by to sit and observe their surroundings or become part of the constant change.

harah
"harah" has the look of reverse glass painting, although in fact opaque modelling clay was used to meticulously close off the individual window panes. The surfaces are reminiscent of monochrome paintings, but have the change radiacally when backlit.

munka
"munka" is an independent work and at the same time inseparable from the museum space. Both the concrete slabs and the corner of the wall rupture the character of a traditional panel painting. The geometric clay surface is formed out of the smallest possible gesture, the swing of a finger.

ma
Two intensely coloured cushions change the function of the short wall and the odd slanted surface built between stairs and wall. The artist's intervention alters the roof terrace; visitors may move around as though in a walkable picture. Through their movement they change the composition.

pizzicato 42
Through the direct application of ink (cyan, yellow, magenta, key) onto paper in the running rotary press of the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, shifting, "endless" lines will appear on the pages of the newspaper. For one day in autumn, the entire issue will become a set of originals. Previously executed: 2007, Tagesspiegel Berlin; 2002, WAZ Essen.

A substantial publication, both catalogue and artist‘s book by Leni Hoffmann, will be published in German and English late in 2009 with the publishing house DuMont, Cologne.

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Angelika Hoerle
Komet der Kölner Avantgarde
26.09.2009 – 17.01.2010

Curator: Angie Littlefield (Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto)

Angelika Fick Hoerle (1899-1923) lived hard and died young. In spite of her youth, she left a promising artistic legacy. Moving through the influences of WW I, the German Revolution and Dada, she developed artistic styles that foreshadowed Surrealism and the Cologne Progressives.

Angelika's apartment in Lindenthal, the ‘dadaheim' with its Schloemilch Verlag, was both a meeting place and the publishing house for Max Ernst's Fiat Modes and the international Dada magazine, Die Schammade. Nicknamed "Dada Angelika" by friends and dubbed the German Master of Dada by a newspaper, Angelika went on to co-found the Stupid Group and become a voice for women along with her best friend Marta Hegeman. When Angelika died of tuberculosis at 22 years of age, her brother, the artist Willy Fick, paid the back rent on the apartment where she had lived alone since the fall of 1922; he wanted to save her things. Willy Fick hid Angelika's works, and those of her politically active friends, from the National Socialists when the artists represented were labelled degenerate.

In 1967, Angie Littlefield, the curator of this exhibition, and grand-niece of the artist siblings, found this precious time capsule of the Cologne arts scene 1919-1923 in Fick's garden shed in Cologne Vogelsang. The oeuvre of Angelika Hoerle reveals an intensely personal story filled with pathos and humour. It explores artistic, political and social changes in the early days of the Weimar Republic. Most significantly, it opens an interesting new window on Cologne's art history from the perspective of a young, politically engaged, female artist.

A catalogue is published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König Köln.

The exhibition has been organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada.

At the same time in Museum Ludwig:

Masterpieces from the Photographic Collection - A new gallery for photography
until 31.01.2010

Russian avant-garde / exhibition series Museum Ludwig, Cologne
until 3.01.2010

Image: Leni Hoffmann, flipper, 2008-2010, © VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2009

Anne Buchholtz
Press and Public Relations Museum Ludwig Tel +49-221-221-23491 Fax+49-221-221-24114 E-Mail buchholtz@museum-ludwig.de

Museum Ludwig
Heinrich-Böll-Platz 50667 Köln

Opening hours:
Tuesday to Sunday (incl. public holidays): 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Every first Thursday of the month 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Closed on Monday
Admission:
Adults: € 9, concessions: € 6 (Children under 14, school students, college students, trainees (Azubis), military/alternative service conscripts on production of a valid ID, owners of the "Köln-Pass")
Families: € 18,00
Groups (20 people and over): € 6.50 per person
School classes incl. teacher: free entrance to the collection
€ 3 per pupil/teacher for the special exhibition

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