Kunsthalle Bielefeld
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More than painting

View into the collection #8

Press material

On the occasion of his 80th birthday, the art historian and curator Wulf Herzogenrath, who grew up in Bielefeld, is donating a collection of works to the Kunsthalle. We present a selection from the donation with works that have expanded the field of art since the 1960s in terms of artistic approach or media. Glass, video, folded objects and painting beyond traditional pictorial concepts meet works from the collection that also show “more than painting”.

The title of the exhibition also refers to Wulf Herzogenrath’s 1994 publication of the same name, which sheds light on the multifaceted field of art from Bauhaus to video sculpture. Finally, the presentation complements the large themed exhibition “Between Pixel and Pigment. Hybrid painting in post-digital times”, which can be seen in parallel at Marta Herford and the Kunsthalle, and which deals with artistic practices that also go beyond analog painting.

With works from the donation by Mary Bauermeister, Kurt Kranz, Nam June Paik, Georg Karl Pfahler, Ulrike Rosenbach and works from the collection by Shannon Bool, Gregor Hildebrandt, Sigmar Polke, among others.

The upright picture is completely filled with a blue and white grid of squares divided into triangles. The white lines are arranged in such a way that the central area of the picture appears to have been moved backwards, creating step-like shapes.
Shannon Bool, Scarpa Grid, 2020 Textile and oil paint on silk, on plexiglass mirror Kunsthalle Bielefeld Photo: Courtesy Kadel Willborn Düsseldorf, © Shannon Bool
A disk of glass at an angle from the side. It hangs from two wires in the room. Round hemispherical elevations of different diameters can be seen on its surface.
Mary Bauermeister, Crystal Clear Cosmos, 1988 Glass and optical lenses Kunsthalle Bielefeld, donation Wulf Herzogenrath 2024 Photo: Ingo Bustorf; © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024
Photo of a room with three separate areas. The place is reminiscent of changing rooms. The doors, walls and floor are designed to resemble black and white tree bark. Under the middle door, an oval-cut fabric extends into the room, completely embroidered with various flowers.
Shannon Bool , Four Seasons, 2018 AP Jacquard tapestry with embroidery Kunsthalle Bielefeld Photo: Courtesy Kadel Willborn Düsseldorf, © Shannon Bool

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 bundle of shapes. Shades of green and blue predominate in the background. On the left is the structure of a brick wall, on the right a shape reminiscent of a car. Streaks and drops seem to float in the foreground. They are predominantly blue and magenta.

Between pixel and pigment

Hybrid painting in post-digital times
A woman in a black dress on the right next to a thick tree in a garden. Red yarn is wrapped around the tree trunk, apparently unwound from a red dress. Only a small remnant of the red dress remains above the chest.

Haegue Yang | Martin Creed | Kanako Hayashi

Time and space. face to face and side by side #11
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
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.

Christa Dichgans | Paul McCarthy

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