Contemporary Art Daily

Artists: John Armleder, Gunther Forg, Peter Halley, Imi Knoebel, John Nixon, Oliver Mosset, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Franz Erhard Walther, Heimo Zobernig

Venue: Nymphius Projekte, Berlin

Exhibition Title: Art of the Eighties

Date: September 10 – November 27, 2010

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Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

Images:

Images courtesy of Nymphius Projekte, Berlin.  Photos by Jens Ziehe.

Press Release:

Since the 1970s John M Armleder, Günther Förg, Imi Knoebel, John Nixon and Franz Erhard Walther were critically examining the medium of painting. What they were claiming was a radical instauration and new aesthetic parameters. At the same time they rediscovered the abstract painting of Kasimir Malevich and took inspiration from Joseph Beuys’ early performances.

In the early 1980s the Austrian artists Gerwald Rockenschaub and Heimo Zobernig, both deeply affected by theater and music, expanded these premises by adding elements of institutional critique. Meanwhile, New York-based artist Peter Halley intensivly dealt with Jean Baudrillards theory of simulation, according to which a distinction between original and copy does not exist anymore.

The art deriving from these influences permeated the reduced formal language of Constructivism and Minimal Art with questions on the nature of art itself brought up by Concept Art. In a world full of pictures with constantly alternating meanings, geometry seemed to be the only possible model to save the artists freedom of action. On the other hand performative elements served to involve and confront the observer. From this contrariness arose works, which sketch out the essential questions of composition still prevailing.

The works by artists of the 1980s will be displayed in a salon hang.

Link: “Art of the Eighties” at Nymphius Projekte

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