Elementary Painting
September 20th 2014 - January 25th 2015, Kunstmuseum
An orange surface on a baking sheet with a simple white frame, or an orange accent on a small-scale canvas...? What is the deciding factor that differentiates painting and crafts as art forms? How do today's artists deal with the starting point of painting since this problem appeared to have been long resolved but is challenged once again by each generation? These are the kind of questions to which the Elementary Painting exhibition at the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen devotes itself: It confronts the classic colour field paintings with situations which initially determine the paintings by their borders.
Curator: Konrad Bitterli
The exhibition makes reference to the legendary Radical Painting exhibition that took place in 1984 at the Williams College of Art in Williamstown/Massachusetts. The term was established for a type of painting which concentrated on the study of colour and paint and mainly within the monochrome, wherein the abandonment of representation can also be seen as the common denominator of various artistic attitudes. The starting point of the Elementary Painting exhibition is a collection of works by John Nixon (*1949 in Sydney, lives and works in Melbourne), generously donated by the artist and the Galerie Mark Müller, Zurich, which strengthens the considerable stock of monochrome paintings in the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen's collection.
John Nixon is the most well-known Australian artist of his generation who has seized and re-defined the traditions of constructivism through to minimal art. His work is associated with that of Marcia Hafif (*1929), Imi Knoebel (*1940), Olivier Mosset (*1944) Steven Parrino (1958-2005) and others who are also represented with major works and are confronted by situations in the exhibition which to some extent comment on painting from an external perspective - ironic and fun!
artists
*1948 in Geneva
lives and works in Geneva and New York
*1976 in St.Gallen
lives and works in St.Gallen
*1966 in Zurich
lives and works in Zurich
* 1957 in Washington, DC
lives and works in Jersey City
*1958 in Zurich
lives and works in Zurich
*1954 in Saint-Mandé, France
lives and wirks in Paris and Berlin
* 1929 in Pomona, CA, USA
lives and works in New York City, NY and Laguna Beach, CA, USA
* 1940 in Dessau
lives and works in Düsseldorf
* 1943 in Cincinatti, OH, USA
lives and works in New York City, NY, USA
* 1944 in Bern
lives and works in Tucson, AR, USA
* 1949 in Sidney, AUS
lives and worksin Briar Hill, Melbourne, AUS
* 1961 in Amherst, MA, USA
lives and works in Ithaca, NY, USA
* 1958 in New York City, NY, USA, † 2005, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, USA
* 1946 in San Diego, CA, USA
lives and works in New York City, NY, USA
* 1959 in Rothenthurm, Switzerland
lives and works in Rüthi, Switzerland
* 1955 in Zurich
lives and works in Müllhausen, Switzerland
* 1957 in Bensberg, Germany
lives and works in Berlin und Zurich
* 1959 in Zurich
lives and works in Mouans-Sartoux, France
* 1959 in Zurich
lives and works in Mouans-Sartoux, France
* 1942 in Speicher, Switzerland
lives and works in St.Gallen
* 1942 in Bonn
lives and works in Cologne and Corberon, France
* 1935 in Brooklyn, NY, USA
lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, USA
*1970 in Zurich
lives and works in Zurich
* 1953 in Graz, Austria
lives and works in der Switzerland
* 1958 in Mauthen, Austria
lives and works in Vienna
Impressions
(Kopie 1)
