Highlight #23: Contemporary Art from the past to the present

Traces to the Switzerland, Austria, U.K. and German

Switzerland, Basel <IN SEARCH OF 0, 10–THE LAST FUTURIST EXHIBITION OF PAINTING>

4 October 2015 ~ 10 January 2016_Fondation Beyeler

There was an exhibition 100 years ago in Petograd (present day St.Petersburg), Russia, that featured the work of 14 avant-garde Russian artists. The show, "The Last Futurist Exhibition of Painting 0,10" would become one of the most influential in the history of modern art. It is also known as the show where Kazimir Malevich, an iconic figure of abstract art, first presented his Black Square. Following years of research, the exhibition returns for a presentation in Switzerland.

Participating artists include Ivan Kliun, Lyubov Popova, Mikhail Menkov, Vladimir Tatlin and others who were chiefly engaged with Cubism and Futurism, demonstrating the pan-European trends contemporary to the original exhibition. Many of the works included in the Swiss iteration are originals from the Russian show.
The exhibition presents a diverse array of painting, sculpture, installation and film, which were enormously influential genres to Malevich.

Vladimir Tatlin <Painterly Relief>

1914-1916 Wood, metal, leather 62×53cm The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow Gift of George Costakis 1977
Ivan Kliun <Ozonator>

1914 Oil and Collage on canvas 75×66cm ⓒ2015 State Russian Museum, St. Peterburg
Kazimir Malevich <Black Square>

(3. Version of Black Square, 1915) 1929 Oil on canvas 80×80cm The Sate Tretyakov Gallery, Mosco

Austria, Vienna <A RUSH OF COLOR>

9 October 2015 ~ 11 January 2016_Leopold Museum

Masterpieces of German Expressionism are presented in time for autumn. This large-scale exhibition features Die Brücke’s Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Otto Mueller and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Alexey von Jawlensky and Franz Marc from the Blaue Reiter movement. The artworks from the Osthaus Museum in Hagen also include numerous pieces by Christian Rohlfs, illustrating the German avant-garde’s departure into Modernism.

At the turn of the 20thcentury, young German artists used powerful, expressive methods such as subjective pictorial formulas and new combinations of colors to demonstrate their perspectives on life. They distorted shapes, overemphasized and reduced images to just their essential features. Though they were radical at the time, today the Expressionists are considered to have laid the foundation for the modern understanding of artists in society.
The exhibition features a selection of approximately 30 paintings and 80 works on paper. Visitors will be able to discover their magnum opus.

Karl Schimidt-Rottluff <Boats on the Water (Boats in the Harbor)>

1913 Oil on canvas 77×90.5cm Coutesy of Institut fur Kulturaustausch, Tubingen/Image rights, Vienna 2015
Otto Mueller <Girl by the Water>

1926 Tempera on canvas 97×130cm Coutesy of Institut fur Kulturaustausch, Tubingen

U.K., London <EMILY JACIR: EUROPA>

30 September 2015 ~ 3 January 2016_Whitechapel Gallery

Emily Jacir is presenting a selection of sculpture, film, drawing, large-scale installation and photography. The artist who is a Palestinian artist and film maker born in Bethlehem. She is best known for exploring histories of migration and resistance.
In particular, the show focuses on the UK premiere of Material for a film(2004-), winner of a Golden Lion at the 2007 Venice Biennale. The installation is based on the life of Palestinian writer Wael Zuaiter, who was assassinated near his home in Rome by Israeli Mossad agents in 1972.

The artist reimagines the writer’s life based in family photographs, correspondence and documents relating to his assassination. Jacir presents her journey through this process with her own photographs, writings and audio works. Also included in the show are Embrace (2005) and the Tal la Zaatar project(2014).

<Stazione>

2008~2009 Public intervention on Line 1 vaporetto stops(Arsenale) Commissioned for Palestine c/o Venice, Collateral event of the 53rd International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Veneza ⓒEmily Jacir

German, Düsseldorf <KWANG YOUNG CHUN: MULBERRY MINDSCAPES>

4 September ~ 31 October 2015_Beck&Eggeling Gallery

The exhibition title "Mulberry Mindscapes" corresponds directly to Kwang Young Chun’s use of hanji, or mulberry paper, in his work. Through the material, which is printed with Korean characters, the artist expresses aspects of the human existence in addition to conveying a Korean idiosyncratic sense of tradition. This time, his new works in the "Aggregation" series will be featured.

The artist was drawn to the city of Düsseldorf in part due to its history as a site for both Korean and German art. "Isn’t this where Nam June Paik and Joseph Beuys both worked?" Chun said at the opening of the show. "For me, Düsseldorfis Paik and Beuys."
Chun was born in 1944 in South Korea. His work is in the collections of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, the Seoul Museum of Art and others. He was nominated artist of the year in 2001 by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. ■ with ARTINPOST

Installation view <KWANG YOUNG CHUN_MULBERRY MINDSCAPES> at BECK&EGGELING Gallery
Installation view <KWANG YOUNG CHUN_MULBERRY MINDSCAPES> at BECK&EGGELING Gallery
Installation view <KWANG YOUNG CHUN_MULBERRY MINDSCAPES> at BECK&EGGELING Gallery