08 Apr 2014

Ludwig Forum Aachen, new exhibitions

This spring the Ludwig Forum Aachen presents three exhibitions with the focus on painting, opening April 13, 2014.

If the pastose application of paint, the grimacing faces and the injured surfaces by Ellen Gronemeyer remind you of Asger Jorn or Karel Appel you are not entirely off base. At first sight her pictures seem to confirm all that the viewer knows about figurative painting since the 1950s. On closer observation however, one starts to doubt these presumptions: Quotations from a pictorial comic language comment the chapped surface, restraining the action through aloof interventions and hereby questioning an all too one-sided perception. The Ludwig Forum Aachen will house the young artist?s first museum based solo-exhibition from April 13 until June 15, 2014.
Drawing on paintings from the Ludwig Collection, the exhibition Modern Icons shows how diversely artists down to the present day have approached and reworked the idea of the icon. The strict canon of forms evident in historical images of saints, transmitted by a tradition stretching back centuries, continues to resonate in contemporary art. Old idols are revered, transformed, or destroyed. At the same time, new, modern icons are created. The exhibition includes works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Franz Gertsch, and more.
In the context of the research project 'Video Archive' - funded by the Volkswagen Foundation - the show 'Painting Electronical Images' throw light on the dialogue between painting and video. The exhibition shows positions from the early years of video art which intentionally refer to painting: either they are made like painted pictures or because they take up paintings as their theme and critically examine art history or offer a caricature. They quote famous works and query the traditional concept of what constitutes a picture and what art is.

Info:

Watchever, Ellen Gronemeyer
April 13 to June 15, 2014
Opening April 13, 12 noon
A catalogue is available

Modern Icons, Painting from the Ludwig Collection
Videoarchive, Painting Electronical Images
April 13, ongoing
Opening April 13, 12 noon