ART-PRESENTATION: Now! Painting In Germany Today

Following intensive preliminary research, curators from the Kunstmuseum Bonn, the Museum Wiesbaden and the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz/Museum Gunzenhauser spent almost two years travelling throughout the entire country. They visited more than 100 studios in order to identify the most interesting painters born in and around the 1980s. The impressive results show what painting means for this young generation today and what the medium in its classic form as a panel painting is capable of achieving across all genres and artistic manifestations.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Deichtorhallen Hamburg Archive

This museum collaboration sharing an ardent commitment to the art of painting resulted the exhibition “Now! Painting In Germany Today” including about 500 works by 53 artists, belonging to the “40-something” generation, present the next generation of important painters in Germany. The four Museums presented three or more works by each artist the period 19/9/19-19/1/20, now a comprehensive selection of these works is on display at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg.  “Now! Painting In Germany Today” is guided by three central premises. Firstly, with regard to what has been said above, the curation was restricted to positions that actually deal with the medium within the limited framework of the canvas panel. Furthermore, in view of the unprecedented expansion of artistic practice to all spheres of life, it begs the fundamental question as to whether an equally consistent expansion of painting may give the medium decisive impulses, or whether the conceptually viable position of painting today will not be found more likely at the juncture where painting must deal with its structural limitations on the flat picture carrier? The second precondition concerns the age of the participants, who basically belong to the age group of around 1979, their ages ranging between thirty and forty. The curatorial team was dealing with the first generation that has by and large grown up without the experience of a divided Germany. This, too, signifies a crucial focus of Now! In this respect, the title of the exhibition should be understood programmatically: the arena that becomes visible here is not legitimised by its embeddedness in an historically grown context, but stands its ground as an assessment of the contemporary condition which, in turn, raises its own questions and provides answers regarding the painted image. The third precondition concerns the geographic framework of the area of exploration. The focus on Germany should not to be understood as an indication of a common national visual language that the suspect is contained in the approaches was selected.

Participating Artists: Mona Ardeleanu, Israel Aten, Paula Baader, Lydia Balke, Cornelia Baltes, Jagoda Bednarsky, Viola Bittl, Peppi Bottrop, Andreas Breunig, Paul Czerlitzki, Benjamin Dittrich, Jens Einhorn, Jenny Forster, Pius Fox, Max Frintrop, Sabrina Fritsch, Ina Gerken, Fabian Ginsberg, Gregor Gleiwitz, Lukas Glinkowski, Sebastian Gögel, Henriette Grahnert, Dana Greiner, Vivian Greven, Toulu Hassani, Sabrina Haunsperg, Franziska Holstein, Aneta Kajzer, Sumi Kim, Maximilian Kirmse, Li-Wen Kuo, David Lehmann, Benedikt Leonhardt, Florian Meisenberg, Monika Michalko, Hannes Michanek, Simon Modersohn, Bastian Muhr, Anna Nero, Moritz Neuhoff, Vera Palme, Alexander Pröpster, Franziska Reinbothe, Daniel Rossi, Markus Saile, Moritz Schleime, Jana Schröder, Daniel Schubert, Kristina Schuldt, Alicia Viebrock, Stefan Vogel, Jonas Weichsel and Tristan Wilczek.

Info: Curators: Prof. Dr. Stephan Berg, Dr. Frédéric Bußmann, Dr. Jörg Daur, Dr. Alexander Klar, Anja Richter, Lea Schäfer and Dr. Christoph Schreier, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Deichtorstr. 1-2, Hamburg, Duration: 14/2-17/5/20, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 11:00-18:00, www.deichtorhallen.de