Günther Förg
15 Nov 2012 - 26 Jan 2013
GÜNTHER FÖRG
Closer
15 November 2012 - 26 January 2013
Giò Marconi Gallery is very pleased to announce Günther Förg’s first solo exhibition “Closer” at the gallery. Förg is a well-known figure in the 1980s and a key member of an influential generation of German artists including Martin Kippenberger, Georg Herold and Albert Oehlen. His distinct investigations into Modernism take painterly issues into the realms of architecture, sculpture, and photography to reflect on both individual experience and historical memory.
Günther Förg's artistic oeuvre encompasses paintings, graphic and sculptural works as well as a great body of architectural photographs. His monochrome wall paintings and lead paintings are reflections on art. There are references of Barnett Newman, Jean Fautrier, Paul Klee, Edvard Munch and American abstract painting in his works.
On display at the gallery will be a series of different sized canvases that were all produced in the years 2005 and 2006. The focal point and most prominent work of the exhibition is a 3-piece canvas from 2005 with a length of 12 meters that will inhabit the gallery's major exhibition room and that is, due to its size, reminiscent of wall paintings. All the works that are presented in “closer” belong to Förg’s famous "grid painting" series.
Since 1992, paintings and works on paper, known as "Gitterbilder" (grid paintings), appear in Günther Förg's work. The idea and inspiration of these grid paintings derive from paintings such as Munch’s “Death of Marat”, a figurative work whose back- and foreground wholly consists of different coloured abstract grids. Förg is interested in the abstract and radical meaning of paintings of that important period of the 20th century and he is not afraid of using it for his own understanding of art.
Günther Förg was born in Füssen in 1952 and studied at the Akademie der Bildenden
Künste, Munich with Karl Fred Dahmen.
From 1992 until 1999, he taught at the Staatliche Hochschule fuer Gestaltung ZKM in Karlsruhe. Since 1999 Förg has been working as a professor at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich.
Günther Förg lives and works in Colombier, Switzerland.
The works of Günther Förg were presented in innumerable international institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (1989), Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris (1991), Documenta IX, Kassel (1992), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1995), Museo Nacional Centro Reina Sofia, Madrid (1998), Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (1998), Kunsthaus Bregenz (2001); Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2003), Kunsthalle, Bremen (2006), Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg (2008), Fondation Beyeler, Riehen (2009-2010).
His works are in important international collections such as the MOCA, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humblebaek; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Städel Museum Frankfurt Main; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; MMK, Frankfurt Main; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Castello di Rivoli, Turin; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate Modern, London; Foundation Prada, Milano.
Closer
15 November 2012 - 26 January 2013
Giò Marconi Gallery is very pleased to announce Günther Förg’s first solo exhibition “Closer” at the gallery. Förg is a well-known figure in the 1980s and a key member of an influential generation of German artists including Martin Kippenberger, Georg Herold and Albert Oehlen. His distinct investigations into Modernism take painterly issues into the realms of architecture, sculpture, and photography to reflect on both individual experience and historical memory.
Günther Förg's artistic oeuvre encompasses paintings, graphic and sculptural works as well as a great body of architectural photographs. His monochrome wall paintings and lead paintings are reflections on art. There are references of Barnett Newman, Jean Fautrier, Paul Klee, Edvard Munch and American abstract painting in his works.
On display at the gallery will be a series of different sized canvases that were all produced in the years 2005 and 2006. The focal point and most prominent work of the exhibition is a 3-piece canvas from 2005 with a length of 12 meters that will inhabit the gallery's major exhibition room and that is, due to its size, reminiscent of wall paintings. All the works that are presented in “closer” belong to Förg’s famous "grid painting" series.
Since 1992, paintings and works on paper, known as "Gitterbilder" (grid paintings), appear in Günther Förg's work. The idea and inspiration of these grid paintings derive from paintings such as Munch’s “Death of Marat”, a figurative work whose back- and foreground wholly consists of different coloured abstract grids. Förg is interested in the abstract and radical meaning of paintings of that important period of the 20th century and he is not afraid of using it for his own understanding of art.
Günther Förg was born in Füssen in 1952 and studied at the Akademie der Bildenden
Künste, Munich with Karl Fred Dahmen.
From 1992 until 1999, he taught at the Staatliche Hochschule fuer Gestaltung ZKM in Karlsruhe. Since 1999 Förg has been working as a professor at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich.
Günther Förg lives and works in Colombier, Switzerland.
The works of Günther Förg were presented in innumerable international institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (1989), Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris (1991), Documenta IX, Kassel (1992), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1995), Museo Nacional Centro Reina Sofia, Madrid (1998), Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (1998), Kunsthaus Bregenz (2001); Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2003), Kunsthalle, Bremen (2006), Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg (2008), Fondation Beyeler, Riehen (2009-2010).
His works are in important international collections such as the MOCA, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humblebaek; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Städel Museum Frankfurt Main; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; MMK, Frankfurt Main; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Castello di Rivoli, Turin; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate Modern, London; Foundation Prada, Milano.