Upcoming 2012
- photo: Jens Willebrand
In the course of the year, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen will once again be showcasing a provocative and varied exhibition program at our three venues, the K20 Grabbeplatz, the K21 Ständehaus and the Schmela Haus, a former gallery building located in Düsseldorf’s old town. Awaiting visitors will be different projects, ranging from classical modernism to monographic presentations of internationally recognized artists. Playing a central role in our program will be large-scale special exhibitions, as well as active interventions involving works from the permanent collection, along with special foci on film and video art and on artist’s rooms.
2012
Thomas Schütte - Wattwanderung
June 16 , 2012 – Sept 09, 2012
K21 STÄNDEHAUS
In summer of 2012, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen will be showing "Wattwanderung" ("Tidal Flat Walk") (2001) by Thomas Schütte in the main exhibition level. This space-filling work, part of the collection of the Kunstsammlung since 2004, will be on view now for the first time. The form of presentation, developed by the artist, is unusual: the series of 138 engravings will be mounted sheet by sheet in the gallery on taut clotheslines. The work is conceived as a kind of journal, and visitors are invited to traverse a range of themes and genres, including self-portraits and flowers.
Gillian Wearing
Sept 08, 2012 – Jan 06, 2013
K20 GRABBEPLATZ
Central to the films, videos, photographs, and installations of British artist Gillian Wearing (born in Birmingham in 1963, lives in London) is the question of how the individual shapes his or her own existence. The subtitle “Frontstage/Backstage,” derived from role theory in sociology, refers to the discrepancy between public and private presentations of the self which is thematized in the exhibition.
Gillian Wearing, the recipient of the Turner Prize in 1997, represents a quieter and more reflective position within the group known as the Young British Artists (YBAs), once the focus of so much scandal. Foregrounded in her work is an examination – one that is critical of the contemporary media – of Society and its taboos, of issues of identity and collective traumata, which is to say: not of the artist’s expressive gestures or the mental state of the individual. Gillian Wearing uses photography and film to realize investigative projects which she translates into a visually overwhelming image language. Simultaneously moving and analytical, her works open up an incisive dialogue between work and public, asserting themselves as a contemporary development of the classical portrait medium. The exhibition, organized in cooperation with the Whitechapel Gallery in London, is the first overview of works by this British artist.
The exhibition is supported by Kulturstiftung des Bundes.
100 mal Paul Klee – Geschichte der Bilder
Sept 29, 2012 – Feb 10, 2013
K21 STÄNDEHAUS
Presented to the public together for the very first time will be all 100 works by Paul Klee which are held in the permanent collection of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen. The occasion is the purchase of the 100th work by this artist. The core of the Düsseldorf Klee collection was formed by 88 works acquired by the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1960. The collection is among the most comprehensive in Germany devoted to the works of this artist, and constitutes a major attraction both regionally and internationally. Containing examples from all of Klee’s creative phases, the collection offers incomparable insights into the oeuvre of this many-sided artist.
Paintings, drawings, watercolors, and other works in color add up to a wide-ranging overview of Klee’s seemingly
inexhaustible creative production. With both sensitivity and a keen analytical gaze, Klee reflects upon the events of his times, generating an artistic cosmos which unites tragicomedy, lightness, gravity, irony, playfulness, and calculation. This singular opportunity to display the entire collection as a whole also opens up perspectives onto lesser-known regions of art history.
The works of the collection render accessible the multifaceted and intricate methods employed by Paul Klee in creating his works. On the other hand, works which have appeared in numerous exhibitions since their production reflect the active role played by art dealers who were dedicated to promoting the artist's work. In addition, a focus on the collectors who owned these images prior to their acquisition by the Kunstsammlung allows viewers to explore their extraordinary destinies.
