A Roman emperor meets an English pop star, Lucas Cranach's Venus meets Benedikte Bjerre's Chicken and Cindy Sherman's sex dolls, horse-drawn carriages meet a giant flying machine. The Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg is celebrating its 30th anniversary with these and other surprising encounters.
The major anniversary exhibition presents highlights from the museum's top-class collection and also shows numerous new donations for the first time. Special "guests" have been invited to stage the exciting dialogues on timeless and at the same time true-to-life themes in a particularly effective way: Fifteen historical works from the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig are juxtaposed with contemporary paintings, sculptures and installations by internationally renowned artists, including Elizabeth Peyton, Jonathan Meese, Michel Majerus, Andreas Gursky, Gauri Gill, Bruce Nauman, Phyllida Barlow, Panamarenko and many more - a "who's who" of contemporary art!
Panamarenko, The Airplane, 1967, aluminum tubes, wire ropes, V-belts, bicycle saddle and handlebars, 2 bicycle pedals and rims each, 6 polystyrene wings covered with canvas, 150 x 700 x 1600 cm, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, © Panamarenko
The exhibition takes up unusual perspectives on the body, sexuality and identities, family sensitivities or social values such as freedom and equality; within fifteen chapters, it spans a thematic arc from the individual to the global.
With its cooperation with the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, the anniversary exhibition is a further sign of institutional solidarity, not least to strengthen art and culture in the region. The juxtaposition of works from both museums results in a lively examination of the constants as well as the variations of our living environment.
May 25 to August 4, 2024
Elizabeth Peyton, Evan Reviewing Singles of the Week for Melody Maker, 1997, oil on canvas, 102 x 76 cm, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, © Elizabeth Peyton
Artists in the exhibition
Franz Ackermann, Nobuyoshi Araki, Richard Artschwager, Awst & Walther, Natalie Ball, Phyllida Barlow, Ute Behrend, Richard Billingham, Benedikte Bjerre, Hussein Chalayan, Serge Attukwei Clottey, Charles-Nicolas Cochin the Elder, Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert, Tony Cragg, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Domenico da Venezia, Emanuel de Witte, Jan Dibbets, John Dixon, Burhan Dogançay, Sophie Erlund, Jacques Fouquier, Frans Francken the Younger, Sandra Gamarra Heshiki, Gilbert & George, Gauri Gill, Liam Gillick, Douglas Gordon, Andreas Gursky, Eberhard Havekost, Ulrich Hensel, Georg Herold, William Hogarth, Jörg Immendorff, Christian Keinstar, In Sook Kim, Jeff Koons, Mischa Kuball, Christopher Kulendran Thomas, Robert Lebeck, Rebecca Lewis, Pia Linz, Ann Lislegaard, Sharon Lockhart, Michel Majerus, Anna Malagrida, Jonathan Meese, Mario Merz, Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik, Panamarenko, Elizabeth Peyton, Prajakta Potnis, Adam Putnam, Neo Rauch, Mariela Scafati, Thomas Schütte, Tejal Shah, Cindy Sherman, Antanas Sutkus, Stefan Thiel, Goran Tomcic, Mette Tronvoll, Luc Tuymans, Timm Ulrichs, Willem van Nieulandt, Hendrick van Steenwyck d. Ä., Mariana Vassileva, Tobias Verhaecht, Danh Vō, Abraham Willaertstba
www.kunstmuseum.de
Christian Keinstar, Simplification, 2017, gallium, steel, electronics, mold, 155 x 50 x 50 cm, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, donation Freundeskreis des Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg e.V., © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024
