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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.

Face to Face
and Side by Side

The series “face to face and side by side” 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

KB Journal

Between color volume, drippings and braiding
German women artists of the Informel after 1945

Black and white photograph of a woman pouring paint from a pot onto the floor.

In the literature on Art Informel, abstract art in Germany after 1945, the role of women in this art movement is rarely mentioned. This is where we begin to fill this void. We present four German women artists of the post-war period and explain the special German cultural scene of the time in which they were active.

Black and white photograph of a woman pouring paint from a pot onto the floor.

More from the archive

A woman has her head tilted to the left. She looks old and emaciated. She holds her chin with a bony hand. Her eyes are closed, her hair looks a bit untidy, it is probably pinned up at the back.

Taking a stand. Käthe Kollwitz, Mona Hatoum
Schwarz-weißes Bild eines mittelalten Mannes mit kurzgeschorenen dunkelgrauen Haaren, breiter Nase und dunklen Augenbrauen. Er blickt schräg nach unten und scheint in Gedanken versunken zu sein. Das Bild ist im unteren Bereich nicht zu Ende koloriert, es sieht unfertig aus.

Viewpoints

View into the collection #7
An empty room with a pink wall and dark tiled floor. A large white circle is drawn on it with chalk.

Paula Modersohn-Becker / Ian Wilson

Brush, line and assertion - face to face and side by side #10
A car is travelling along a country lane. There are some fir trees on the wagon and the driver of the wagon can be seen in the side profile. The car is kicking up dust. There are wind turbines in the background.

Silke Schönfeld

Invented Traditions - Imagined Communities
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
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
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
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 Landschaft. Bäume, Palmen, ein

Connections

Look into the collection #5
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
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
dark_matter_dev

Thomas Ruff, James Welling

Dark Matter
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