Düsseldorf Kunstakademie's New Wave

"Bernard Lokai, "Fiat Lux," 2010, Öl / Leinwand, 200 cm x 90 cm

Cornelius Völker, "Brustwarze,"2010, Öl auf Leinwand, 40 x 35 cm Driss Ouadahi, "Traces," 2010 , oil on linen - 71 x 78.5"

At ArtForum, Mara Hoberman reports that “Introducing the Next Wave from Germany” is an ambitious, but deserved, subtitle for the eight-artist, bi-coastal show from Düsseldorf’s Kunstakademie curated by Todd Hosfelt. "The exhibition juxtaposes a range of styles, subjects, and perspectives. Ultimately, it is the artists’ shared technical talent and palpable appreciation for painting’s storied history that unify them as a 'wave.' Their skill and conceptual sophistication with regard to painting owe, in no small part, to the tutelage of masters including Kiefer, Lupertz, Penck, Polke, and Richter. The enviable 'Einfluss' (influence)—blatant in some cases, subtler in others—of the Kunstakademie’s recent faculty permeates the emerging generations’ work. All eight artists display an appealing mix of academic training, art-critical savvy, and freshness. Standouts include Cornelius Völker, Bernard Lokai, and Driss Ouadahi...."

In the San Francisco Chronicle, Kenneth Baker writes that the San Francisco show "makes a more powerful impression" than the one in New York. "Stefan Kürten, Driss Oadahi, Birgit Jensen, Stefan Ettlinger and Jutta Haeckel distance themselves from the content and touch in their pictures by resorting to various processes or preset structures of visual information. All of their strategies recall to some extent another famous predecessor from the Kunstakademie, Sigmar Polke (1941-2010). Yet, unlike Polke, all of these painters seem to want to involve viewers sensuously as well as intellectually in their works' details."

"EINFLUSS: 8 from Düsseldorf: Introducing the Next Wave from Germany, Part 1: New York," Hosfelt Gallery, New York, NY. Artists include Cornelius Völker, Jutta Haeckel, Luka Fineisen, Driss Ouadahi, Bernard Lokai, Stefan Kürten, Birgit Jensen. Through January 22, 2011.

"EINFLUSS: 8 from Düsseldorf Introducing the Next Wave from Germany, Part 2: San Francisco," Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Through February 5, 2010. 

Related post: 

Studio Visit with Jutta Haeckel
Anselm Keifer's factory
Sigmar Polke is dead

 

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