PHILIP-LORCA DICORCIA
20 JUNE – 8 SEPTEMBER 2013
 
For the very first time in Europe, the Schirn will host a comprehensive retrospective on the oeuvre of US photographer Philip-Lorca diCorcia. Born in 1951, diCorcia is one of the most important and influential photographers of today. His images oscillate between everyday elements and arrangements that are staged down to the smallest details. In his oeuvre, images that are seemingly close to reality taken with an ostensibly documentary eye are undermined by highly elaborate direction of the images. One of the key topics that diCorcia addresses is the issue of whether reality can be represented and this is one of the continuous threads linking his photographs, most of which he creates as series. For example, for Hustlers (1990–1992), he took photographs of male prostitutes in minutely staged settings, while for what is presumably his most famous series, Heads (2000–2001), he captured a second of the everyday life of passersby on the street in New York, who were oblivious to him. Alongside the series Streetwork (1993–1999), Lucky 13 (2004) and A Storybook Life (1975–1999), the exhibition at the Schirn, organized in close collaboration with diCorcia, will also feature works from his new and ongoing East of Eden project.
 
Curator: Katharina Dohm (Schirn Kunsthalle)

July 12, 8pm,
Opening and performance Aqua Leo, 1st of at least two
 
July 13, 4pm
Performance School of the Seven Bells, 4th of at least three
Ongoing performance from 11am
 
September 7, 7pm
Performance Ähjeii, followed by a concert by Beautiful Balance

Afterparty from 10pm, with Chloé at Robert-Johnson, Offenbach

STREET-ART BRAZIL
5 SEPTEMBER – 27 OCTOBER 2013
 
In the context of Brazil being the Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2013, for the first time in Germany Schirn Kunsthalle will be showcasing the diversity of Brazilian graffiti art. Brazil’s metropolises are home to some of the most vibrant and artistically interesting graffiti communities the world over. This colorful, dynamic and unique movement differs sharply in terms of both content and aesthetically from the US and European street art scenes. Not only the specific political/social mood in a country characterized by profound upheaval, but also the immense variety of techniques and styles are trademarks of Brazilian street art and make it stand out from the globalized graffiti culture. The spectacular show that starting with the Schirn’s own outside walls will intervene in Frankfurt’s urban space reflects the movement’s current diversity with all its different artistic approaches. On show will be figurative and abstract work, joyful and socially critical images, from densely-packed large-size murals through to unobtrusive and ephemeral signs. US, Japanese or African influences blend with elements of the ancient indigenous traditions and modern Brazilian culture to create quite unexpected expressive pieces. Many artists from São Paulo and other cities in Brazil have been invited to shape the face of various of Frankfurt’s urban spaces and thus transform what we see every day in the city.
 
Curator: Carolin Köchling (Schirn Kunsthalle)

BRASILIANA
INSTALLATIONS FROM 1960 TO THE PRESENT
2 OCTOBER 2013 – 5 JANUARY 2014
 
In fall 2013 Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt will launch a multifaceted group exhibition dedicated to artistic installations in Brazil. A tour of spaces and installations offering intense experiences will present the specifically Brazilian version of what has become a key medium in contemporary art. An exceptionally lively artistic community back in the late 1950s initially critically explored the theories and Modernist trends in Western metropolises, and this swiftly gave rise to an original and truly Brazilian form of art. The synthesis of elements from different cultures engenders self-determined characteristic Brazilian art that is powerful, very expressive, and in which a sensory, physical and intellectual penetration of art plays a key role. The transformation of the painted image into lived experience outside the image has been a core undertaking ever since. In this spirit, Brazilian artists produce expansive artworks that involve viewers as a whole, surround them, occupy them, incorporate them, challenge them physically, haptically and visually in many ways. This special, sensory thrust of the installations, which at the same time address political, social and ethical issues, has remained alive to this day. The exhibition presents installations from the early 1960s through to new artistic positions to demonstrate the specifically Brazilian element of this “art of experience”, in which the observer is directly involved as a participant.
 
Curator: Dr. Martina Weinhart (Schirn Kunsthalle)

GÉRICAULT
IMAGES OF LIFE AND DEATH
18 OCTOBER 2013 – 26 JANUARY 2014
 
In fall 2013 Schirn Kunsthalle will hold the very first solo show on Théodore Géricault (1791–1824) in Germany. It will firmly center on two key sets of themes that the major French Romantic painter addressed: the physical suffering of modern man (as is so impressively presented in his still lifes of cut-off heads or limbs as the interweaving of life and death), as well as psychological torment (as in his portraits of the mentally deranged). This completely new way of representing existential situations, of madness and illness, of suffering and death, bear witness to Géricault’s especially modern thrust, and it gives subject matter otherwise associated with repugnance and disgust the status of profound images that are troublingly contemporary. Treading a thin line between the Romantic love of horror and the unsentimental eye of science, with his images of madness and death Géricault played a key role in the constitution and visualization of the modern individual. In dialog with the works of his contemporaries, such as Francisco de Goya, Johann Heinrich Füssli or Adolph Menzel, the exhibition expounds how the traditional view of Realism and Romanticism as diametrically opposing epoch-making styles is by no means tenable.
 
Curator: Gregor Wedekind (Mainz)
Project director at the Schirn Kunsthalle: Kristin Schrader

PHILIP GUSTON
THE MAJOR LATER WORKS
6 NOVEMBER 2013 – 2 FEBRUARY 2014
 
The courageous and quite extraordinary oeuvre of US painter Philip Guston (1913–1980) was one of the most controversial of the age. He was the first painter to return to figuration in the post-War era and was quite pioneering in linking high art and images from popular culture, so that today many celebrate him as the trailblazer of postmodern, figurative painting. In 1950, though self-taught Guston earned his spurs in the New York art world as defined by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko, and emerged as one of the major champions of Abstract Expressionism. At the end of the 1960s, he embarked on an intense phase of drawing, something that culminated in his breaking away in painting from the “purity” demanded of abstract art: Guston introduced coarse figures and fragments of figures into his works; they populate his pink, red, black and blue canvases, smoking, drinking, and not infrequently painting. Large heads, severed hairy legs, clumsy shoes, and all manner of architectural fragments such as walls, doors, and lamp bulbs are among Guston’s themes, which are reminiscent of 1920s comics. The first exhibition of these paintings, with their anarchic sense of humor and feel for the grotesque, was in 1970 and caused a veritable scandal, as many critics accused him of “betraying” abstract art. To mark the 100th anniversary of his birth, Schirn Kunsthalle is honoring Philip Guston with an exhibition boasting a concentrated selection of some 40 works from what was his most exciting period, showing how they form a milestone in American painting.
 
Curator: Dr. Ingrid Pfeiffer (Schirn Kunsthalle)

RONI HORN
12 DECEMBER 2013 – 26 JANUARY 2014
 
However varied the media in which the American artist Roni Horn expresses herself, it is a single theme that preoccupies her in her photos, sculptures, installations, drawings and texts: the changeable, inconsistent nature of identity. By mirroring pairs of images or objects, for example, the artist – who was honoured in 2009 with a major retrospective at the Tate Modern, London and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York – creates an interplay between similarity and difference that has a disconcerting effect on the viewer. The latter can enter into the framework of an alleged me-and-you relationship, or seek himself in the gaze of a photographed face directed towards or away from him. Particularly Roni Horn’s photographic portraits, which are arranged in sequences, invite participation in such dialogue. In 2013, in an exhibition project designed especially for the Schirn, the artist will present one of these series in the exhibition hall’s rotunda as well as – in the form of an intervention – in the urban space of Frankfurt. Portraits will encounter us silently and without context at various locations; the question as to whether we find ourselves in them or are unsettled by her gaze will remain unresolved.
 
Curator: Kristin Schrader (Schirn Kunsthalle)