ART-PRESENTATION: Günther Förg-A Fragile Beauty

Günther Förg was as equally influential on the 20th Century German art scene, he produced photographs and paintings, as well as wall paintings, sculptures, and reliefs. In the 1980s and ’90s Förg’s work was continually reinterpreted: initially considered a postmodernist, he was later seen as engaging with the legacy of expressionism.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Stedelijk Museum Archive

Günther Förg and the Stedelijk Museum maintained a close relationship that first flourished in the 1980s. The Museum began collecting Förg early on his career and regularly made his work the subject of presentations, publications, and debate. The exhibition “A Fragile Beauty” features 100 works, from his entire oeuvre and illuminates the evolution of his experimental and radical approach. Taking its cue from the artist, for whom the space was integral to the work, each room is individual in nature. On presentation are Förg’s early monochrome paintings, together with his color studies, (architectural) photographs, sculptures, and late spot paintings. The exhibition traces the entire trajectory of Förg’s career. Merging disciplines and boundaries, he worked in a variety of materials, ranging from bronze and lead, to plaster and reflective glass. In exhibiting his work, Förg assimilated the architecture of the gallery space – even doors and windows – into the work itself. From the early 1980s, Förg was using photography for his woks, mostly large formats of a variety of famous architectural sites. His interest in photography led him to travel a lot around Europe, with a keen interest for Bauhaus buildings. The grainy quality of his photograph conveys his preoccupation in the process of fragmentation. This effect was to suggest a similarity with paintings. His sharp-angled perspectives on some of the Bauhaus structures in Israel, of fascist ones in Italy, serve to suggest the nature of those buildings. To present his photographs, he used thick protective glass which reflected the room and the viewer. Förg was, without doubt, an artist who challenged the parameters of disciplines. His work contains references to famous predecessors and artists he admired, such as Edvard Munch, Philip Guston, Barnett Newman, and Clyfford Still. Förg’s interdisciplinary practice questioned artistic conventions and analyzed modernism and its aesthetic.

Info: Stedelijk Museum, Museumplein 10, Amsterdam, Duration 26/5-14/10/18, Days & Hours: Mon-Thu & Sat-sun 10:00-18:00, Fri 10:00-22:00, www.stedelijk.nl