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Christa Dichgans | Paul McCarthy

Innocent Games? Face to Face and Side by Side #9

Two pictures hang on a wall with reflective silver foil. On the left is a photo of an old doll with a black head and thick lips. The doll is broken: the right leg lies severed in front of her. Behind her is a dark blue background. On the right, a painting with a pile of toys against a white background: dolls, stuffed animals, cars, on top of which lies a doll with long limbs and a white dress.
Left: Paul McCarthy: Untitled (Black Doll, from the series “PROPO”), 1972-94,
Cibachrom on aluminum, Ahlers Pro Arte Foundation.
Right: Christa Dichgans, Toy Still Life (New York), 1967, acrylic on canvas, Kunsthalle Bielefeld. Installation view. Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer

In the series “facing each other” a work from the collection of Kunsthalle Bielefeld meets a selected loan from another institution. This encounter leads to new, often surprising perspectives.

In the ninth installment of our series “facing each other” a photograph from the series “PROPO” (1994) by Paul McCarthy from the ahlers collection and the painting “Toy Still Life (New York)” (1969) by Christa Dichgans from our collection meet. Dichgans’ painting depicts a chaotic accumulation of used toys, McCarthy’s photograph a doll with black skin and severed legs that invokes racializing attributions. While McCarthy deals with power, oppression, violence, and racism, Dichgans’ work focuses on accumulation, abundance, and the theme of mass: mass society, mass consumption, and also mass taste. Both works can be understood as a mirror of society and raise questions: What do children play with? What values are conveyed with the toy? What impact does this have – and what does it say about our society?

The exhibition is produced in cooperation with the Ahlers Pro Arte Foundation.

The exhibition series is produced in cooperation with the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1288 “Practices of Comparison. Arranging and Changing the World” at Bielefeld University.

with each other
each other

The series “facing each other” focuses on a work from the collection of Kunsthalle Bielefeld that addresses central issues in juxtaposition with a selected external work. The focus is always on a concentrated comparison of the selected works. In 2023, the Kunsthalle is cooperating with the Herford-based Ahlers Pro Arte Foundation, which is providing the external artworks on loan for all three interventions. In the three juxtapositions we show works by Alberto Giacometti, Christo, Paul McCarthy and Katrin Mayer, among others.

Two pictures hang on a wall with reflective silver foil. On the left is a photo of an old doll with a black head and thick lips. The doll is broken: the right leg lies severed in front of her. Behind her is a dark blue background. On the right, a painting with a pile of toys against a white background: dolls, stuffed animals, cars, on top of which lies a doll with long limbs and a white dress.
Kunsthalle Bielefeld Exhibition "Innocent Games? Face to Face and Side by Side #9". Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
On a wall with reflective silver foil in the background is a painting with a pile of toys against a white background: dolls, stuffed animals, cars, with a doll with long limbs and a white dress lying on top. In the foreground of the photo is a text hanging in the room with explanations about this small exhibition.
Kunsthalle Bielefeld Exhibition "Innocent Games? Face to Face and Side by Side #9". Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Two pictures hang on a wall with reflective silver foil. On the left is a photo of an old doll with a black head and thick lips. The doll is broken: the right leg lies severed in front of her. Behind her is a dark blue background. On the right, a painting with a pile of toys against a white background: dolls, stuffed animals, cars, on top of which lies a doll with long limbs and a white dress.
Kunsthalle Bielefeld Exhibition "Innocent Games? Face to Face and Side by Side #9". Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
Two works of art on the wall opposite are reflected by a silver foil surface hanging freely in the room. On the left, a rather white picture is blurred, on the right a slightly larger one with a doll dressed in red with a dark head. The room otherwise has parquet flooring and white walls. In the background, an almost square painting with dark structures against a light background can be seen on a white wall.
Kunsthalle Bielefeld Exhibition "Innocent Games? Face to Face and Side by Side #9". Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer
A corner of the room. On the left, on a wall with reflective silver foil, a painting with a pile of toys against a white background: dolls, stuffed animals, cars, on top of which lies a doll with long limbs and a white dress. The silver foil reflects the light in irregular patterns onto the wall opposite the viewer.
Kunsthalle Bielefeld Exhibition "Innocent Games? Face to Face and Side by Side #9". Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer

More from the archive

Abstract forms such as stripes, implied rectangles, egg shapes and surfaces in different colors. Partly the colors overlap, some shapes are painted quickly and look very moved.

Action, Gesture, Paint

Women artists and abstraction worldwide 1940-70
A drawing showing two cats, the tail of another cat and some star shapes. Cats and stars look as if they were floating around each other in the air. The colors are contrasting with blue, yellow, red, orange and purple to pink.

Keren Cytter. Hot Lava Night
Several red houses with trees behind them and a green meadow in front.

Brauchen und Haben

Blick in die Sammlung #6
A brown lump of cloth wrapped with twine is mounted in an old picture frame. The background is golden, the wide border blue and gold, with a fine pattern. A plexiglass hood serves to protect the work. On both sides, white fabric panels hang from the ceiling.

Katrin Mayer / Christo

Shroud or unfold. facing each other #8
A postcard, with fountain pen in old handwriting, from 1914

Hermann Stenner

Letters, sketches, drawings. View of the archive
A structure of a house built of wood. Walkable, quite low for a house, with a gable roof. On some of the wooden posts are colored circular shapes on a white background. In all four corners of the structure are corner benches. In the center of the house a cylindrical stove.

Oscar Tuazon

What we need
Eine Landschaft. Bäume, Palmen, ein

Connections

Look into the collection #5
Von unten sind Eisbrocken an der Wasseroberfläche zu sehen. Licht scheint hindurch. Darunter im Wasser ein Taucher in der Ferne. Die Farben nur weiß und graublau.

Aurel Dahlgrün

Summit
Eine türkisgrüne Farbfläche. Darauf ein ausgerissenes Stück Pappe in der Form eines Trichters. Diese Form ist grau und am rechtren Rand helltürkis.

Yto Barrada

Bad Color Combos
Eine Skulptur einer abstrahierten menschlichen Figur. Die Beine sind schmal, der Oberkörper etwas breiter. Ihre Augen sind nur durch große Augenhöhlen angedeutet. Sieht ein bisschen aus wie schnell geknetet.

Alberto Giacometti / Martin Disler

Small and big demons. with each other opposite #7
Two walls across the corner in the Kunsthalle: on the left, a large right-angled triangle with a base line pointing from bottom left to top right. Running parallel to it are broad lines in friendly colors.

Michel Majerus / Kurt Schwitters

Face to Face and Side by Side #6
Bildschirm­foto 2022-12-01 um 11.14.22

Letting rooms speak

Architecture in film
In an exhibition room of the Kunsthalle. In front of the wall-high window is a yellow-green, roundish object, about 1.60 meters high. In front of the window a curtain with an architectural photograph printed on it. Behind it, paintings on two walls.

In(visible)

View into the collection #4
dark_matter_dev

Thomas Ruff, James Welling

Dark Matter
A very dark exhibition room in the Kunsthalle. A kind of skeleton of a rowing boat hangs from the ceiling. Glowing white cords hang down from it, slightly rolled on the floor, their ends glowing like dots. At the back of the wall is a film projection with light reflections, presumably these cords in the water.

Following water
Two dancers in front of a wall relief by the artist Oskar Schlemmer. One dancer in track pants is in the front left of the picture, looking towards the relief. The other one is squatting on the floor a bit further back, looking to the right. Both can be seen the body tension. The relief shows a large seated wire figure carrying a small standing one. Only the dancer in the foreground can be seen sharply.

Oskar Schlemmer | TANZ Bielefeld. KUNSTFIGUR | VERKÖRPERT

miteinander gegenüber #5