Visual Arts - Exhibitions and Artist Portraits

Ghost / Unknown Mass, Towada Art Center, 2011, Towada, Japan; © inges idee

21 Years of Ideas – inges idee

For more than 20 years now a group of artists in Berlin known as “inges idee” have been working on projects in public space. In a playfully charming way they design sculptures that everybody can understand.More ...

Reiner Ruthenbeck, Living with Pop, 1963; © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013

Living with Pop: Capitalist Realism in Düsseldorf

In 1963, Gerhard Richter and Konrad Lueg presented their performance “Living with Pop” in a furniture store. In honour of the fiftieth anniversary of that performance, an exhibition at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf now looks back.More ...

Katja Strunz, Drehmoment, Ausstellungsansicht, 2013; © Katja Strunz, Foto Matthias Kolb

The Folds of Time and Space - Katja Strunz

Katja Strunz soon made a name for herself with her wall and room installations that make use of folds. Her exhibition at the Berlinische Galerie, however, shows, how complex her sculptures are.More ...

Thomas Bayrle; © Südpol-Redaktionsbüro/Burkhard Maus

The Atom Smasher – Thomas Bayrle

Thomas Bayrle's large-format murals, sculptures and film animations still manage to impress the general art public. It was back in the 1960s when he first became well known for his graphic tableaux.More ...

Martin Kippenberger, Ohne Titel (aus der Serie Lieber Maler, male mir), 1981; © Estate Martin Kippenberger, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Köln

“Kippi” Like You Wouldn’t Believe – Martin Kippenberger in Berlin

He was considered to be an enfant terrible of the art business, he lived a life of excess and died at an early age. In celebration of his 60th birthday the “Museum für Gegenwart” in Berlin is paying homage to this controversial artist.More ...

Ai Weiwei’s installation; © Burkhard Maus

By Way of a Detour – Germany at the Biennale in Venice

For decades now it has been considered to be in the best possible taste at the Biennale to call the competition among the nations into question. The German entry made a statement, but in the end it shied away from conflict.More ...

Wolfgang Tillmans, Paper drop (space), 2006, Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Köln/Berlin; Foto: © Wolfgang Tillmans

The Photography of Immediacy – Wolfgang Tillmans in Düsseldorf

Wolfgang Tillmans uses Düsseldorf’s old Ständehaus as an extension of his studio. Right up to the opening of his show the renowned photographer worked on the set-up and design of this wide-ranging exhibition of his oeuvre.More ...

David vor den Deichtorhallen; © Deichtorhallen Hamburg

Simply Art – Hans-Peter Feldmann in Hamburg

An exhibition is being held at Hamburg’s Deichtorhallen Centre entitled Hans-Peter Feldmann: Kunstausstellung – a show that provides an overview of the artist’s complete works from the last four decades.More ...

Eli Weinberg; Crowd near the Drill Hall on the opening day of the Treason Trial, Johannesburg, 19. Dezember 1956 | Times Media Collection, Museum Africa, Johannesburg

Photography as an instrument of protest: “The Rise and Fall of Apartheid”

Beginning in the 1950s, resistance to the apartheid regime in South Africa became increasingly radical. An exhibition in Munich presents photographic coverage of the anti-apartheid movement.More ...

Luc Tuymans (right); © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Galerie Neue Meister

Romanticism – a European phenomenon. An Interview with Luc Tuymans

The Belgian artist Luc Tuymans is co-curator of an exhibition at the Dresden Albertinum in which he has four masters of European Romanticism encounter artistic positions of the present.More ...

Otto Piene; © Südpol-Redaktionsbüro/M. Conrads

Elements and Experiments: Otto Piene at the ZKM

Otto Piene was involved in the founding of the ZKM in Karlsruhe. Now the ZKM has given the artist the opportunity to hold his first solo exhibition.More ...

Andreas Magdanz, Building I, 2010/2011; © Andreas Magdanz

Stammheim for Posterity: Andreas Magdanz

Stammheim acquired a depressing notoriety in the nineteen seventies. During the course of a two-year project, photographer Andreas Magdanz has addressed this sensitive subject.More ...

Jens Rötzsch, Berlin (Ost) 1989, Pfingsttreffen der FDJ – Stadion der Weltjugend; © Jens Rötzsch/Sammlung Berlinische Galerie, Berlin

A Panorama of the Photographic Art of the GDR: “The Shuttered Society”

“The Shuttered Society” was a showcase of about 250 images taken by 34 photographers – a veritable panorama of the photographic art of the GDR.More ...

Anahita Razmi, The Paykan Project, 2010/11; © Anahita Razmi

Attempts at Cultural Transfer - Anahita Razmi

Anahita Razmi deals with both political and social issues, often related to Iran. Now the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart is staging the first individual exhibition of the video and performance artist.More ...

Andreas Fischer, Your Time is My Rolex, exhibition view, 2013; © Südpol-Redaktionsbüro/T. Köster

Machines with the Human Touch – Andreas Fischer in Cologne

The 40-year-old artist, Andreas Fischer, transforms tools and everyday objects into sculptures that move and speak. Now an exhibition at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne will be paying tribute to his work.More ...

The trumpet player Don Cherry on the poster of the exhibition 'ECM – A Cultural Archaeology', photo by Ralf Dombrowski

Marketplace of Visions – The exhibition “ECM – A Cultural Archaeology”

An exhibition explores the interplay of visual impressions, auditory perception and aesthetics using the example of the record company ECM.More ...

Campo Santo Pisa 1985; © Candida Höfer, Köln; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013

Candida Höfer – Rooms with a view

Ever since the beginning of her creative career Candida Höfer’s photography has always focused on places that have a story to tell.More ...

Thomas Scheibitz, exhibition view “One-Time Pad”, 2012; © Foto: Axel Schneider, VG Bild-Kunst 2012

Painting as a Paradox – Thomas Scheibitz

One-Time Pad – the title of Thomas Scheibitz’s exhibition at Frankfurt’s Museum für Moderne Kunst derives from a type of encryption used for secret messages which cannot be cracked.More ...

Diving through Europe: An Interview with Klara Hobza

The power of the imagination is the material with which the artist Klara Hobza works. Her experiments provoke all kinds of projections.More ...

Work of Andreas Siekmann; © Foto: Uwe Riedel

Pictograms of Globalisation - Andreas Siekmann

The main focus of Andreas Siekmann’s work is on the changes taking place in our society and the impact of globalisation and the shifting of economic responsibilities.More ...

Gigantic Image Constructions: Andreas Gursky in Düsseldorf

“My images are forever,” – this was Andreas Gursky’s proud statement at the opening of his exhibition in his home town of Düsseldorf. And nobody seemed to be particularly surprised by this.More ...

Members of a large family, “Fördertürme, 1965–1996” | © photo: Bernd and Hilla Becher/courtesy Schirmer/Mosel

The incorruptible gaze – the photographer-couple Bernd and Hilla Becher

Pit frames, gasometres, blast furnaces: such relics of industrial culture were the preferred motifs of Bernd and Hilla Becher.More ...

Impression von der Documenta; © Philipp Bösel

Documenta 13 – A Record in Pictures

At 8 p.m. on 16th September 2012 the Documenta 13 closed its doors – and in the truest sense of the word broke all bounds. Philipp Bösel, artist and photographer, has compiled a portfolio containing the most impressing images.More ...

Franz Erhard Walther: Schreitsockel und Standstellen, Ausstellungsansicht ZKM/Museum für Neue Kunst, Courtesy Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris, und KOW, Berlin; © VG Bild-Kunst 2012/ F. E. Walther

Action with Sculptures: Franz Erhard Walther

Franz Erhard Walther is regarded as one of the most influential artists of his generation. Now the Karlsruhe ZKM is presenting an exhibition from 26 May until 9 September 2012: “Space Through Action”.More ...

Cornelia-Friederike-Müller: 4-Beats-per-Breath; © Steffi Loos / Fotokombinat

The Gallery as an “Open Space for Action”: “Cage100”

The new director of Leipzig’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Franciska Zólyom, draws some of her inspiration from John Cage. In her first exhibition as curator, she presents ephemeral works.More ...

Ulla von Brandenburg, Kulisy (2010), Verschiedene alte Theatervorhänge und Seile der Oper Warschau; © Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, Courtesy Art:Concept

Blurred Boundaries: Made in Germany Zwei

The exhibition “Made in Germany Zwei” in Hanover reveals that the young art scene in Germany is international, yet is perfectly content merely to self-examine and look back.More ...

Clemens von Wedemeyer: The Fourth Wall; © Fotograf: Alexander Koch, Courtesy of Clemens von Wedemeyer and KOW, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013

Through the Fourth Wall – Clemens von Wedemeyer

The films and installations of Clemens von Wedemeyer deal with the veracity of history and stories. His approach is subjective and he applies the concept of the “Fourth Wall”.More ...

Art at the Interface – Christoph Keller

He magically creates clouds in the sky and turns dark backyards into havens of sunshine: Christoph Keller ponders the partly blurry zones of human existence: between art, science and invention.More ...

BMW Guggenheim Lab; © Südpol Redaktionsbüro/L. Vierecke

Coffee Courtesy of Solar Energy - The “BMW Guggenheim Lab” in Berlin

In Berlin this spring the whole city was abuzz with one topic – the stationing of the “BMW Guggenheim Lab”.More ...

Documenta exhibition hall; © Nils Klinger

Of Dogs and Humans: Documenta 13 in Kassel

Staged for the first time in 1955 and held every five years in Kassel since 1977, Documenta is the only major exhibition of contemporary art that always promises an analysis of the present day.More ...

Christina Kubisch: “Cloud“, 2011, Installation; © Foto: Christina Kubisch

Sound Art as a Medium in Art History

What remains of an art genre when digitization calls into question even the art object itself? A major exhibition in Karlsruhe entitled Sound Art. Sound as a Medium of Art offers an answer.More ...

Michael Schmidt – Food

From 4 March until 13 May 2012, the Morsbroich Museum presents Michael Schmidt’s Food series: a set of photographs stripped of any form of accusation or personal concern, yet bursting with razor-sharp clarity.More ...

Room view, The Divided Sky. The Collection, The New National Gallery; Copyright: © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; photo: Roman März

“The Divided Sky” – A Look into the Depots of the New National Gallery in Berlin

The New National Gallery in Berlin is examining its holdings, looking into its depots, and asking how its planned permanent exhibition will go towards forming the canon.More ...

“Making Pictures Visible”. Harun Farocki

Having produced over 100 films and installations for television, cinema and art exhibitions, Harun Farocki is one of Germany’s highest-profile media artists. A portrait and interview.More ...

Aernout Mik, „Communitas“, 2010 © Aernout Mik und carlier | gebauer, Berlin, photo: Florian Braun

“Communitas” – Aernout Mik at the Folkwang Museum

The Folkwang Museum in Essen is showing a retrospective of the video artist Aernout Mik. In his works of the past ten years, he has dealt with the political and psycho-social state of society.More ...

A Look Ahead into the 1990s – Michel Majerus

Even after his untimely death, the art of Michel Majerus continues to receive much attention. The Stuttgart Art Museum is showing a retrospective of his work.More ...

Margarete Dietrich. Berlin. 1979; from the series: Berlin in einer Hundenacht. 1977 bis 1990. Gundula Schulze Eldowy, “Die frühen Jahre” C/O Berlin

Images from the Unflinching Lens of Gundula Schulze Eldowy at C/O Berlin

C/O Berlin presents over 120 early works by one of the most remarkable photographers who practiced in East Germany: Gundula Schulze Eldowy.More ...

Otto Dix in front of his house in Hemmenhofen, 1961 | photo: Hannes Kilian @ Haus der Geschichte Baden-Württemberg/Sammlung Kilian

Trust Your Eyes – Otto Dix

His motto was “Trust your eyes”. Otto Dix, one of the great loners of twentieth century art, would have celebrated his 120th birthday in December 2011. An occasion for an unbiased assessment.More ...

Julius Popp, Bit.fall, 2001–06, Courtesy Galerie Jochen Hempel, Leipzig, photo: François Doury, Paris

“The Art of Deceleration” at the Home of the Volkswagen, in Wolfsburg

In a flurry of major works of modern and contemporary art, this show asks: Don’t we need to slow down?More ...

Things Don’t Speak for Themselves – Beate Gütschow

In her photographs of interiors and discarded technical parts, Beate Gütschow recapitulates pictorial strategies. In the Braunschweig Museum for Photography she is showing this new series of works.More ...

Florian Slotawa: “Besitzarbeit I: Gesamtbesitz”, 1996, Installation view Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg, February 1996 | © VG Bild-Kunst Bonn 2013

Worldly Goods and Art. Florian Slotawa

When the student Florian Slotawa hauled all his possessions into his studio, stacked and photographed them, he laid the foundation stone for his artistic work.More ...

J. MAYER H.: Rapport 1428 | © J. MAYER H., photographer: Ludger Paffrath, Berlin

Data Structures – An Exhibition of the Architect Jürgen Mayer H.

The Berlinische Galerie is showing an exponent of contemporary Berlin architecture: Jürgen Mayer H., border-crosser between architecture, design and the visual arts.More ...

Max Beckmann: “Meeresstrand” (Seashore), 1935, oil on canvas, 65 x 95.5 cm (from the exhibition “The Landscapes” at the Basel Kunstmuseum) | Museum Ludwig Köln, Göpel 419, © ProLitteris, Zürich

Magic Reality – Max Beckmann

He was long considered the typical German painter; Max Beckmann is now acclaimed as a titan of modernity. Three museums show his work.More ...

Thomas Ruff | Photo: Ralph Goertz/ IKS-Medienarchiv

Thomas Ruff – Stellar Landscapes

In more than two dozen series on various subjects, Thomas Ruff has investigated the capacities and limits of the medium of photography.More ...

Bernhard Blume, “Geometry and Exhaustion” (Geometrie und Erschöpfung), 2002, from the series “Abstract art” (Abstrakte Kunst) | Courtesy Buchmann Galerie Berlin

The Uprising of Things – Obituary for Bernhard Johannes Blume

The bookseller Walther König cleared his shop window to display publications by Bernhard Blume – to show his appreciation of a great conceptual artist, who died on September 1, 2011.More ...

The Principle of Metamorphosis: Gerhard Richter

His style consists in the constant change of style and has made Gerhard Richter one of the most successful contemporary German painters.More ...

David Claerbout, Vietnam, 1967, near Duc Pho (reconstruction after Hiromichi Mine), 2001 | Courtesy Sammlung Goetz, © David Claerbout / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012

“Mouths of Ash” – The Goetz Collection at the Haus der Kunst

To launch her collaboration with the Haus der Kunst, Munich collector Ingvild Goetz has selected from her collection 15 works which deal with the subject of war.More ...

Jonathan Monk, “Remake of the Weekend”, 2010 | courtesy Meyer Riegger, Berlin, © David Brandt

Aha Experiences Aren’t the Point – “Is that true?” At the Dresden Kunsthaus

An exhibition at the Dresden Kunsthaus explores how artists stand with respect to knowledge and truth.More ...

Meuser, Knautsch, 2009 | courtesy Galerie Gisela Capitain Köln

Meuser: Once without Everything

He had endless discussions with Beuys and shared a love for picture titles with Kippenberger. Now Meuser is exhibiting his work at the Municipal Art Gallery in Karlsruhe under the title “Crumple”, guaranteed pathos-free.More ...

Peter Piller: “Kraft” (Kraft), 2010, series of 40 slides | Courtesy Galerie Michael Wiesehöfer © Peter Piller: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013

Peter Piller: The Abnormal in the Normal

Peter Piller draws, writes texts, photographs and collects. Recently, his own photos have also been incorporated into the Peter Piller Archive, as an exhibition at the Brunswick Art Society shows.More ...

Franz West „Ion“ (2010); © Hugo Glendinning

When Art becomes a Playground: The Exhibition “Move”

Dance as a radical art form of post-war modernity has influenced the works of visual artists in many and diverse ways - or has itself put art into choreographic contexts.More ...

Olafur Eliasson: Your blind movement, 2010; Fluorescent lights, aluminium, steel, fog machine, wood, foil / Dimensions variable; Photo: Studio Olafur Eliasson; Courtesy the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York | © 2010 Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson Turns Museums into Inspiring Laboratories

The artist Olafur Eliasson has caused quite a stir internationally with his increasingly complex and striking constructions. At the “Institut für Raumexperimente”, he is now also putting a model for art education to the test.More ...

Timm Ulrichs: Betreten der Ausstellung verboten (i.e., Do Not Enter the Exhibition), 1968/69, Sprengel Museum, Hanover | © VG Bildkunst Bonn, 2013; photo: Herling/Gwose

Timm Ulrichs – Do Not Enter the Exhibition!

The Sprengel Museum and the Kunstverein have devoted a double exhibition to the conceptual artist Timm Ulrichs in his hometown of Hanover.More ...

“Internal Cell Pressure” – Artist Magazines and Books in the Late GDR

An exhibition at the New Museum in Nuremberg offers a look at the diverse, critical scene that used art to buffet against the walls of an ossified and insecure state.More ...

“Afropolis. City – Media –Art” at the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne

With “Afropolis“, the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne has set a course: an ethnological museum opens itself to current global processes of urbanisation and artistic intervention.More ...

Michael Sailstorfer: Rocket Tree (Raketenbaum), 2008, diptych, diasec on aluminium, museum glass; Hennecke Collection, Berlin, Germany | © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013; photo: Achim Kukulies

Rebellious Promise – Michael Sailstorfer in Hanover

Once again Michael Sailstorfer impresses the viewer with a sculptural arsenal of natural and motorised elements, smell and noise, melancholy and allegory.More ...

Eberhard Havekost: Tier, B08 2008 | © Eberhard Havekost, Galerie Gebrüder Lehmann Dresden/Berlin

Ambitious New Pictures: Eberhard Havekost in Dresden

Recently, figurative elements have disappeared from the pictures of Eberhard Havekost, as the first large museum exhibition of his work in his hometown of Dresden shows.More ...

Anne Lass: Untitled, Las Vergas (2004); © Anne Lass

Focus on the Unknown: Young German Photographic Art in “Hijacked 2”

Desolate urban environments, phony war snapshots, ghostly border crossings: the book “Hijacked 2” shows how young German photographers have repositioned themselves in a global world.More ...

Abbas Kiarostami: Filmstill from „Shirin“, 2008

Future and Tradition. Exhibition in the Munich House of Art

Exactly 100 years after the exhibition ‘Masterpieces if Mohammedan Art’, the Munich House of Art brings ‘classics’ of Islamic art face to face with contemporary Arabic artistic positions.More ...

Thomas Geiger: Der Untergang, 2009 | Courtesy Weingrüll, Karlsruhe

Bottle post from the home port

In the Städtische Galerie in Karlsruhe, students and graduates of the local art academy are exhibiting their works under the title: “The Irresistible Rise of Daredevils and Losers”.More ...

photo: Markus Tretter © Kunsthaus Bregenz, Cosima von Bonin

Cosima von Bonin in Bregenz

“Bye Bye Utopia” and welcome to “Fatigue Empire” – the wealth of ideas and the positive presence of the works of Cosima von Bonin and raumlaborberlin contradict their pessimistic titles.More ...

Rosemarie Trockel: Untitled | Photo: Kunstmuseum Basel, Martin P. Bühler

In Flux – Rosemarie Trockel in Basel and Zürich

In her work, which weaves its way among various media, she masters the balancing act between abstraction and empathy. Now, Rosemarie Trockel is being acclaimed with two exhibitions in Switzerland.More ...

© Mark Leckey, courtesy: Galerie Daniel Buchholz

Moving Images – Artists & Video/Film 1958–2010

An exhibition in the Museum Ludwig explores the development of the two rival technologies of video and film – differences and similarities, convergences as well as divergences.More ...

Sigmar Polke: The Three Lies of Painting, 1994 | photo: Haydar Koyupinar, Courtesy Gallery Michael Werner Berlin, Cologne, New York © Sigmar Polke 2010

For an inventive magician – Tribute to Sigmar Polke

Playing with materials and content, Sigmar Polke gave our present an ironic grilling as inexorable as it was light-footed.More ...

Tobias Zielony, BMX, 2008. From the series Trona | © Kunstverein Hamburg

The Queer Bird Of Youth – Tobias Zielony in Hamburg

The Hamburger Kunstverein is showing works by photographer Tobias Zielony. They cast an imploring perspective on the worlds between childhood and becoming an adult.More ...

Your Uncertain Shadow (color), 2010. Halogen lamps, glass, aluminum,
variable dimensions | Photo: Jens Ziehe. Courtesy the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York © 2010 Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson: The Miracles Happens in the Eye

At the Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin, Olafur Eliasson has set in motion a visual arsenal of dissimulation, fog actions and space modulations.More ...

FLUCHTVERSUCH, 2008, oil on canvas, 220 x 400 cm, Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch collection, Berlin | © VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 20132 | courtesy Galerie EIGEN + ART Leipzig/Berlin and David Zwirner, New York | photo: Uwe Walter, Berlin

“Companions” – Celebrating Neo Rauch’s 50th Birthday

A major double exhibition in Neo Rauch’s home city of Leipzig and in Munich celebrates the painter’s 50th birthday.More ...

Franz Ackermann: Leben und Sterben (Living and Dying), 2009 (installation detail, Bonn 2009) | Photo: Reni Hansen

Franz Ackermann’s spatial art at the Bonn Art Museum

From small-format “Mental Maps” to large-scale installations – Franz Ackermann transforms travel impressions into explosive, pop-art wall canvases.More ...

Andreas Hofer: “Trans Time” | Photo: Sammlung Goetz

Batman’s Gallery – Andreas Hofer in The Goetz Collection

Andreas Hofer, a shooting star in Germany’s contemporary art scene, once again demostrates the sovereignty with which he is able to cocoon entire rooms with his rough, raw use of signs.More ...

Corinne Wasmuht: Pathfinder, 2002 | Photo: Heinz Pelz

In the Vortex of the World – Corinne Wasmuht in Berlin

The Haus am Waldsee in Berlin presents “Supracity”, the first retrospective of the work of Corinne Wasmuht, who paints pictures – slowly and deliberately – of a high-speed world.More ...

Thomas Struth: Crossroads with passers-by, Wuhan, 1995 | © Schirmer/Mosel Verlag, Thomas Struth

The World of Today – Texts on the Work of Thomas Struth

Desolate streets and densely populated museum-like interior spaces, family portraits and individual portraits: as diverse as Thomas Struth’s themes might seem, the uniformity lies in the consistency of showing what is there.More ...

A. R. Penck: Der Übergang (Passage), 1963. Aachen, Sammlung Ludwig, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst © 2009 A. R. Penck

Attempts to Account for the Unspeakable: “Art of Two Germanys/Cold War Cultures”

Between 1949 and 1989, despite the ideological borders between the two countries, artists on either side of the Wall were more attuned to one another than a glimpse at that brief chapter in art history would suggest.More ...

Thomas Demand: Büro / Office, 1995. C-Print / Diasec, 183.5 x 240 cm © Thomas Demand, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012

Draped Scenes – Thomas Demand at the New National Gallery in Berlin

One of the most important German artists, Thomas Demand, uses around 40 images to bring together his photographic historical interpretation of the 60th anniversary of the Federal Republic.More ...

Katharina Fritsch Company at Table, 1988, polyester, wood, cotton, paint, 1600 x 175 x 140 cm; Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt am Main; On permanent loan from the Dresdner Bank, Frankfurt; Copyright: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013

Katharina Fritsch – Dancing to the Tune of the Muse

It is a successful revival in more ways than one. The exhibition of Katharina Fritsch at the Kunsthaus Zürich surprises us with flirtatious glimpses of a new rococo.More ...

Thomas Schütte 
Großer Geist (Big Spirit) No. 4 and No. 5, 1997; Großer Geist (Big Spirit) No. 14, 1999  
Polished aluminium, 246 x 187 x 112 cm; 238 x 200 x 131 cm; 250 x 100 x 110 cm 
De Pont museum of contemporary art Tilburg, NL
 Photo: Florian Holzherr 
Copyright: Thomas Schütte / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013

Big Spirits and Little Imps – Thomas Schütte in Munich’s Haus der Kunst

With a keen sense for the humour and unfathomable depths of his figures, the high halls in the “Haus der Kunst” have been bedecked with the sculptural and graphic works of Thomas Schütte.More ...

Andreja Kuluncic: For Austrians only, 2005 © Andreja Kuluncic
Selja Kameric: Bosnian Girl, 2003 © Selja Kameric

A Pair of Left Shoes – Reality Check in Eastern Europe

20 Eastern European artists are exhibiting in Bochum Art Museum. They come from eleven nations, especially from the Balkan States. In their works they tell of hurtful prejudices, rock music and life in uninhabitable dream houses.More ...

Candida Höfer: Türken in Deutschland (Turks in Germany), slideshow 1979
© 2013 VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Candida Höfer: “Projects: Done” at Morsbroich Museum

Candida Höfer’s latest show combines an inventive projection into the future with a retrospective of accomplishments past: “Projects: Done”, her 15th and latest project, provides a sort of résumé of her completed photo series.More ...

IMI KNOEBEL: RAUM 19 III 1968/2006. New National Gallery, Berlin, 2009 | © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013; Photo: Ivo Faber

Exhibiting in a Space Without Walls: Imi Knoebel in Berlin – Twice Over!

He confronts an icon of architecture with a couple of cans of paint: Imi Knoebel has applied rhythmic brush-strokes to the glass exterior of the New National Gallery in Berlin and has put together a minimal selection of his works in the exhibition area. In a second show, this artist, who lives in Düsseldorf, shows that he is not the least bit afraid of red, yellow and blue.More ...

Katharina Grosse
shadowbox, 2009
Acrylic on laminated hard foam (partial view)
Photo: Jens Ziehe, Berlin
© Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin / Katharina Grosse /
VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013

Colour Manoeuvres between Heaven and Earth – Katharina Grosse in Berlin and Nuremberg

For at least ten years now, the German painter Katharina Grosse has cast a spell over museum walls with her vapoury atmospheric colour mists. She has successfully replaced the brush with the airbrush. In two exhibitions Grosse now shows that illusory colour spaces can be transferred to sculptural objects. An attempt that does not invariably succeed.More ...

Katharina Sieverding, Steigbild X, 1977
A/D/A Process, acrylic, steel, 300 x 375 cm
Courtesy Galerie Christian Lethert, Köln
Photo: Klaus Mettig.
Copyright: Katharina Sieverding/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013

Miracles and Exorcised Demons: “Drei” (i.e. “three”) – An Exhibition In Stuttgart on the Triptych in Modern Art

For the very first time, a survey exhibition focuses on the development of the modern triptych. Starting with the late 19th century, the Stuttgart Museum of Art explores the forms that this class of paintings – considered to be among the most majestic – has taken since then. A long-overdue exhibition, researched and organised in a true spirit of discovery, and which does not fail to include utterly contemporary apocalypses and experiments with colour.More ...

Olaf Otto Becker: Inland Ice 2, Grönland 07/2007, 69°41’00’’ N, 049°53’22’’ W, 829 Meter Höhe. Pigment print, 160 x 200 cm © DuMont Buchverlag

“Vanishing Landscapes” – With Nothing But GPS And A Camera

Artists from ten countries went to Iceland, the Arctic and the jungle to photograph landscapes that future generations will most probably never be able to see.More ...

Henriette Grahnert
© Galerie Kleindienst

Henriette Grahnert: The Painter and the Ambiguous Playfulness of Her Painting

She is one of those exciting graduates of the Leipzig Art Academy whose virtuosity lies in pushing painting to the limits of its possibilities and for which they have won international acclaim. But instead of figures, she elevates paint drippings and painter’s tape to the protagonists of her oil-on-canvas paintings. She was awarded the Bank of Saxony’s Art Award in 2008, and exhibits her works in Leipzig’s Museum of Fine Arts.More ...

Alexander Kosolapov
This is my Blood, 2002
Leuchtkasten
82 x 150 cm
Courtesy Guelman Gallery
VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013

Religion in the Media, Media as a Religion: an exhibition in the Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe

Holy scriptures, icons, music and song: religions have always made use of various media forms to put their messages across. An exhibition in the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe demonstrates the extent to which visual communication is now characterised by political/religious imagery.More ...

Reiner Ruthenbeck, Endless crossing black/white on two mirrors, 1995, Tape on mirror glass, 240 x 300 cm; Photograph: Juan García Rosell, IVAM Valencia; © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013

Precision and Good Cheer: Reiner Ruthenbeck in Duisburg and Düsseldorf

Drawings and photographs, sculptures, spatial works, conceptual projects and noise pieces: The artist Reiner Ruthenbeck (born 1937) has created an extraordinarily multifaceted oeuvre. Two exhibitions are currently looking back over his career.More ...

Gerhard Richter, Cage (2), 2006, 300 x 300 cm, private collection, © Gerhard Richter

Visual Arts in Germany: Exhibitions and Artist Portraits

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