print October 1998

Isa Genzken

Although Isa Genzken’s recent exhibition was dominated by the five wooden towers displayed in the gallery’s main space, the show also included three books of collages, and a wall assemblage made of crushed household appliances. That these efforts represent a fundamental departure in the artist’s oeuvre becomes clear when they are compared to such earlier series as the “Epoxidharz,” 1992 (translucent sculptures made from epoxy), and “The Hat and Lamp Sculptures,” 1992–96 (objects that turn slowly on their axes with the aid of a small motor), sets of pieces that were all fabricated according to

print September 1998

Marijke van Warmerdam

The Museum Ludwig’s eagerly anticipated new project space was inaugurated this spring with three installations by the thirty-nine-year-old artist Marijke van Warmerdam. Jochen Poetter, who has been the museum’s director since October 1997, hopes to use the space to respond with flexibility and immediacy to the latest trends in contemporary art. In this respect, the choice of artist was significant: van Warmerdam’s work has appeared at the Venice Biennale, the Kwangju Biennial, and Documenta X, and she has also had solo shows at the Vienna Secession and the Museum for Contemporary Art in Zurich.

previews September 1998

I Love New York

In Germany, LA rules when it comes to hot new art. So it’s all the more surprising that the director of the Museum Ludwig, Jochen Poetter, should focus a whole show on New York’s contemporary scene, featuring work from the last five years by some twenty-five artists. Here the theme, “crossovers,” applies to style, media, and disciplines, and Poetter is mounting work by well-known artists such as Mark Dion, Dan Graham, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and Jack Pierson alongside that of artists still little seen in Germany (e.g., Doug Aitken, Cheryl Donegan, Mariko Mori, Sarah Morris, Piotr Uklanski, and

previews September 1998

Douglas Gordon

Few artists of his generation have been as feted as Douglas Gordon. He’s won the Turner and the Premio 2000 at the Venice Biennial and is in the running for this year’s Hugo Boss Prize. This first large survey on the continent of his work, organized by Kunstverein director Eckhard Schneider, should show what the fuss is all about. Along with such well-known pieces as List of Names and Something between my mouth and your ear, new work will be unveiled. (Those who pine for more can travel to Cologne, where a separate show will honor Gordon as the recipient—surprise!—of the Central Art Prize.) A

print Summer 1998

Gregor Schneider

Gregor Schneider’s career is notable for a number of reasons. Five years ago, at the tender age of twenty-five, he was given a solo show at a major gallery in Cologne, and only a few years later he had another at the Kunsthalle Bern. Despite Schneider’s early success, his work has received little attention in art publications. One possible reason for this is that his work doesn’t resemble much art that is currently seen in galleries; another is that photographs of his installations tend to be as unspectacular as the work itself. Since he was a teenager, Schneider has been continually rebuilding

print May 1998

Leipzig’s new art center

WHEN THE GALERIE für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig opens its doors in mid-May, it’ll become the first new institution devoted to contemporary art in the states that made up the former East Germany. The kickoff will feature two exhibitions that presage the Galerie’s activities to come. The ground floor show, “ONTOM”—an invented word the institution is licensing from Adib Fricke’s language project The Word Company—will focus on pieces and projects that highlight the role of the viewer in completing the work. This strategy is central to much of what will be on view, including contributions from

previews May 1998

Jason Rhoades

At least since last year’s Lyon Biennale, Jason Rhoades has been one of the most sought-after young artists in Europe. Now, Eva Meyer-Hermann, director of the Kunsthalle Nürnberg, has landed the artist’s first German solo show. While the installation is bringing together some of Rhoades’ earlier works, the Kunsthalle’s seven rooms will be crammed with artifacts prepared (or, better, collected) just for this show. In characteristic fashion, Rhoades binds his personal, hermetic obsessions and his concerns with the history of Western art and culture. It’s no wonder then that the show’s accompanying

previews May 1998

May ’98

Under the auspices of the Friends of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum and the Ludwig Museum, this ambitious show (Too works by twenty-four artists) tracks the evolution of contemporary art over the last three decades. Curators Brigitte Oetker and Christiane Schneider, who adroitly put together last year’s site-specific “Kunst in der Leipziger Messe,” hope to show the impact of the art of the ’60s and ’70s on the generations that followed—with particular emphasis on the fate of social and political utopianism. Among the contemporary artists included are Cosima von Bonin, Angela Bulloch, Olafur Eliasson,

print May 1998

Franz Ackermann

Franz Ackermann’s site-specific installation Songline, 1998, is another milestone in the rigorous development of his work. In previous shows, Ackermann deployed street scenes and topographical maps as metaphors for movement, travel, and urban existence; here he constructed a space through which the viewer can move. He built freestanding plaster dividers inside the actual walls of the museum, so that one initially experienced the work as an architectural intervention, a hermetic space-within-a-space reminiscent of the living-cells created by the French artist Absalon.

Entering the installation

print April 1998

Ettore Sottsass

In 1972, when Ettore Sottsass was invited to participate in the landmark show “Italy: The New Domestic Landscape,” his project undertook nothing less than the complete reorientation of popular attitudes toward domestic space. Sottsass chose to work with conventional furnishings or appliances intended for kitchens, bedrooms, and bathrooms, placing these elements into container modules fitted with wheels. His presentation took the form of nine fiberglass containers, an accompanying text, and exhibits illustrating possible uses for the modules.

Five of the original nine containers and the displays

print March 1998

Cosima von Bonin

Although for many of her generation Cosima von Bonin is a central figure in the Cologne art scene, some have been struck more by her persona and by her artistic approach than by the work itself. This is perhaps in part because (like the late Martin Kippenberger) von Bonin has often integrated objects made by friends into her own projects. She has also been involved in collaborative performances and installations, especially with artist Kai Althoff. Von Bonin’s recent exhibition “Löwe im Bonsaiwald” (Lion in the bonzai forest), the first in several years to contain only her own work, thus marked

print February 1998

Philip-Lorca diCorcia

Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s compelling new urban sociological portraits arc reminiscent of his “Hollywood” series of 1990–92, which consisted of images of male prostitutes and drug addicts in Los Angeles, each titled after the subject’s name and the fee he requested to serve as a model. Because of his affinity for certain social milieus, diCorcia’s work has often been associated with that of photographers like Nan Goldin, Mark Morrisroe, or Jack Pierson. Unlike those artists, however, who often live among the communities they document, his approach is typically detached though equally impressive.

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Yilmaz Dziewior