Mostre al Kunstmuseum del Liechtenstein

Fino alla fine di Ottobre il Kunstmuseum del Liechtenstein ospita il nuovo allestimento con la mostra "Kirchner, Léger, Scully & more" parallela alla mostra "Who pays?" che durerà fino al 21 Maggio.

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Following the exhibition première in its own building annexed to Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, the Hilti Art Foundation is now set to mount the sequel entitled "Kirchner, Léger, Scully & more". 

On the three levels of the exhibition building, which opened in 2015 as an extension to Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, the Hilti Art Foundation is showing thirty-six selected paintings and sculptures from its internationally renowned private collection. 

The exhibition starts on the lower ground level with a section devoted to an exploration of the human form, and more specifically the female form. The depictions of women by Lehmbruck, Hodler, Picasso, Léger and Laurens show life in full bloom and at its most beautiful. In contrast, Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture Quatre femmes sur socle (1950), for example, conveys a sense of tangible sensuality withdrawing into aloof immateriality. 

Paintings by artists of classical modernism define the character of the first upper level. The works on display here include four paintings by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, the key representative of the artist group "Brücke"; they are from three distinct creative periods, during which the artist worked in Dresden, Berlin and Davos respectively. Further highlights in this section include paintings by Max Beckmann, such as Selbstbildnis mit Glaskugel (1936), which is now surrounded by other Beckmann works from the 1920s, 30s and 40s. Works by Kandinsky, Klee, Dubuffet or Wols illustrate paths into abstraction. 

The third upper level is devoted to paintings from 1980 to the present day. This section includes works by Imi Knoebel, Gotthard Graubner and Sean Scully, three artists who applied completely different approaches and techniques, but who all represent abstract art in its most mature form. 

The exhibition "Kirchner, Léger, Scully & more" falls into line with the opening exhibition by presenting some of the artworks from the first show in a new context, thus giving visitors continued access to these seminal works. The exhibition was curated by Uwe Wieczorek, curator of the Hilti Art Foundation, and is accompanied by a catalogue with explanatory texts about all the artworks. 

Who Pays?

"Art = Capital", as Joseph Beuys put it. This succinct formula sums up his understanding of the world: "The only revolutionary force is the power of human creativity."

Behind this lies the idea that every human being can contribute to the common good and have a formative effect on society by means of his creative action. The necessary skills – spirituality, open-mindedness, cooperation and creativity – are inherent in every human being, all that is needed, Beuys claims, is to recognise, train and encourage these faculties. Based on the Beuysian notion of capital, the exhibition Who Pays? takes a look at changing ideas of money and capital and the associated transformation of meanings and values. Who Pays? brings together a number of artistic positions from the 1960s to the present. They allow us to examine our notions of wealth and poverty, of give and take, and of participation from different angles, concepts that nowadays are mostly reduced to purely economic aspects. 

“Everything is so very much in motion.” These words written by the author Gertrude Stein in the context of the rapid change of language in the Elizabethan age can also be taken to describe today’s fast-paced changes. Our Western societies are in a state of fundamental upheaval. Not only rising rates of burnout and depression testify to deep-lying anxieties, but also an emerging need for seclusion and safeguarding assets and values. All this in the knowledge that we are using up more resources than Earth can generate. On the other hand we see many and diverse approaches that see potentials and opportunities for a more sustainable future. What is the role of the concept of capital in this context? And what “capital” role can art play? The title of the exhibition Who Pays? is based on a fluorescent sign created by the artist group RELAX (chiarenza & hauser & co) and addresses every single individual. 

Artists: 

Ovidiu Anton – Gianfranco Baruchello – Joseph Beuys – Susanne Bosch – Marcel Broodthaers – Filipa César – Felix Gonzalez-Torres – David Hammons – Diango Hernández – Thomas Hirschhorn – Anja Kirschner & David Panos – Alicja Kwade – Thomas Lehnerer – Mark Lombardi – RELAX (chiarenza & hauser & co) – Christof Salzmann 

An integral part of the show Who Pays? is a diverse cooperation with other institutions. 

The artsprogram of Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, curates the Archive of Social Sculpture in a room dedicated to Beuys. At the beginning of the 1970s a group formed in Achberg in the Allgäu whose aim – under the heading The Third Way – was to try to find alternative models of society. They devised social ideas that remain of influence today, with Beuys elaborating his extended concept of art. The material collected by publisher Rainer Rappmann documents that atmosphere of new beginnings in the 1970s and 1980s in an archive of great importance for post-war German history. For his contribution to the exhibition Who Pays?, the artist Christof Salzmann examined the historical collection with regard to the concept of money and capital in Beuys’s work. 

As part of the exhibition, the Zukunftswerkstatt Liechtenstein will be relocating its activities to Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein. An action space for flexible use will be installed in one of the exhibition rooms. By means of activities and events, the aim is to allow visitors to experience alternative forms of work and economic activity. Together with the Wanderkiosk, a temporary architecture intended to enliven public space, the aim is to create a place that invites people to stay a while and that can be used for a variety of purposes. As a modular open space, the Wanderkiosk is designed to explore the social and cultural potential and “capital”, encouraging us to reflect on money and ideas of exchange and sharing. Visitors are invited to use this space for various purposes. 

In addition, the full supporting programme draws on further cooperations: Haus Gutenberg, Balzers, that has chosen Silence is Golden – Let’s Talk About Money! as its topic for 2017, Liechtensteinische Kunstgesellschaft, Filmclub im Takino, Schaan, TAK Theater Liechtenstein, Schaan, Dialogprojekt Arbogast, Götzis, planoalto Institut, St. Gallen, and TALENTE Vorarlberg.

Gary Kuehn al Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein

Mostra retrospettiva su Gary Kuehn al Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein

Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein is dedicating the first ever comprehensive retrospective to Gary Kuehn (b. in Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1939), one of the outstanding sculptors of late 1960s’ Postminimalism.

In 1966, the year he exhibited his "Melt Pieces" group for the first time at the legendary Bianchini Gallery in New York, he noted the following in his sketchbook: “Butter in the sun. What could be more fatal?” In essence, these words embody one of Kuehn’s guiding principles: processuality. In his early work, Kuehn rebelled against the authority of the strict, rigid form of dominant Minimalism. Like ice cubes or butter, the ideal cuboids seem to be melting. Physical processes, often combined with the influence of outside forces, transform intact geometric forms, with Kuehn experimenting with a wide range of different materials (tar, fibreglass, latex, metal, wood) and an incredible breadth of creative possibilities. The basic form remaining untouched, deformations and changes become visible, giving rise to a narrative, metaphorical element. It is the tension between opposites, strength and weakness, rigidity and flexibility, hardness and softness, solidity and fluidity, that pervade the oeuvre and raise one of the core issues of human existence: the question of limitation and freedom. In 2000, Gary Kuehn made a note that his work lies “somewhere between sex and geometry.” 

The exhibition, created in close cooperation with the artist, gives visitors an insight into his wide-ranging oeuvre as a sculptor, painter and draughtsman from five decades, with an emphasis on the 1960s. On show are more than 120 works, including paintings and sculptures from the groups "Black Paintings", "Gesture Projects", "Berlin Series", "Branch Pieces", "Melt Pieces", "Pedestal Pieces", "Twist Pieces" and a wide range of works on paper, from experimental drawings such as "Drill" or "Stencil Drawings" to drawings of his sculptures. A central theme of the show is the intimate link between painting and sculpture in Kuehn’s work. For example, his high-contrast Black Paintings bespeak the sculptor’s hand both in terms of the application of colour and their focus on the edge of the painting, whereas his sculptures are pervaded by painterly and processual ideas. 

Snoeck Verlag are releasing a publication with essays by Cindy Hinant, Christiane Meyer-Stoll, Julian Rose and George Segal, among others, interviews and writings by the artist, and a richly illustrated exhibition chronology. 

The exhibition is a production of Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, curated by Christiane Meyer-Stoll. 

Under the patronage of the US Embassy Bern.