Art Cologne 2020

In the mid-1970s, David Reed converted the expressive gesture of the brushstroke into an artificial and highly controlled representation of “the brushstroke”. While in Abstract Expressionism, the visible brushstroke was utilized for the artist's personal introspection, David Reed transformed it into an object of analysis and manipulation. For his solo exhibition at the Pérez Art Museum Miami in 2016, the artist created a four-part series of extraordinarily formatted works, shown for the first time in Europe at the New Museum in Nuremberg last year, presenting associated drawings, color studies and a video film with a manipulated scene from the pilot film for the US television series Miami Vice. The work #659, showing at the fair, is the central work of this series and is characterized by transparent, light surfaces as well as rich yellow and blue tones in connection with striking "brushstroke" elements.

Courtesy of Häusler Contemporary | Photo: NMN (Annette Kadisch)

His continuous experimentation with light as an artistic medium resulted in sculptures and room installations with directly or indirectly illuminated elements. In the mid-1990s, Sonnier created his Tidewater Series, illustrating his versatile use of neon tubes. In his work Los La Butte (1994), Sonnier combined a yellow fluorescent tube with metal, fabric and plastic objects. The playful line of the neon tube directly contrasts the objects and packagings found by the artist in the vicinity of his parents' house. The composition of the individual elements, along with the form of presentation on the base, creates a sensual and almost figurative association.

The title FPF #1, of the two-part photograms from the series with the same name, refer to the abbreviation for "frame per foot" and thus to the process of creating the work. Each photogram of the series was exposed for as long as a human foot touched the ground for a single step, the duration varying according to the gait and speed of the walker. Deschenes refers to the measure for image rates "frames per second", which describes the number of individual images of a camera that are taken per time frame. The artist uses analog photographic techniques to examine and visualize time as a physical unit. FPF #1 is a record of the material conditions of their creation. The structure of the surface changes depending on the brightness during the exposure of the photosensitive paper and the intensity of the chemical development. The immediate reality of the photographic process takes the place of a mediating reality - in the form of a motif. The horizontally staggered works have a monochrome mirror-like effect, which, upon closer inspection, reveal a highly individual, sensitive surface: “It changes, it oxidizes, it catches handprints if handled. It is a sensitive, vulnerable material.” Photography is no longer just a momentary snapshot, it is constantly absorbing the influences of its surroundings. FPF #1 should not be seen as classic pictures, but as experiences that are bound to space and time.


Photo: Dirk Tacke

Optically, Je suis Charlie 07.01.2015 is characterized by hand-drawn, sweeping neon lines reminiscent of cables and placed between the mirror and the glass panel. From a close distance, a code is visible on the glass surface, parallel to the neon tube's path. This code is in the tradition of Kowanz's longstanding involvement with the binary Morse Code, which she repeatedly uses as a formal element and carrier of a second level of meaning in her works. In Morse code, Kowanz has set in this work a significant date in contemporary European history: the attack on the editorial office of Charlie Hebdo's in Paris on January 7, 2015. In her works, the artist often refers to various significant dates that were decisive for the supranational unification of present-day Europe or - as in the case of Charlie Hebdo - put it to the test. Against this background, the cable as a link, as means to transfer electricity and data becomes a symbol for the third industrial revolution that began in the 1970s and that accompanied and influenced the different stages of the European Union in many ways.

Photo: Simon Veres

Conceived for an everyday architectural environment, these spectacular works from the Circular Glass series enable a visual and sensory experience of light as was previously reserved for larger installations by the artist. The unique pieces in this series are akin to the Small Glass series from 2016, which has attracted great attention from collectors and a broad public. The Circular Glasses too are individually programmed using the latest LED technology. Their physical structure relates to Turrell's Shallow Space Constructions from the late 1960s and early 1970s. The artist thus continues his long-standing exploration of the technological opportunities in relation to sensory perception practices and invites the viewer to a meditative experience.

Each Circular Glass fascinates by deploying the captivating effect of light on a plane surface. Observing this breathtaking play of light, the two-dimensional plane transforms into an indefinable depth in which the gaze can loose itself. As typical for James Turrell’s work, the Circular Glasses thus challenge the viewers perception of light and space.

Facing a Circular Glass, the viewer perceives a circular plane of light that, unlike a projection, seems to be dense and permeable at the same time and that changes its colors in a gradual flow. The color gradient is reminiscent of an animated atmospheric painting in which colors drift from the center to the edges. At times, a single blue, green, or purple hue floods the plane before imploding into a different color. A new aura-like circle forms and radiates outwards in different gradations, as the process begins anew. The sheet of glass is set behind a cut-out section of wall but is not level with it: a Small gap remains, a narrow spatial zone that provides an additional dimension of depth. Each of the dominant colors in turn radiates out over the sharp edges of the circular opening and into the environing space, contaminating the walls and floor.

Courtesy of Häusler Contemporary | Photo: Florian Holzherr

The floor sculpture The Sex of Heavenly Bodies (1996) shows an open ring shape, thus exploring the tension between limitation and freedom. Formally, the wooden sculpture, coated with epoxy resin and graphite, ties in with the reduction of Kuehn's early works of Mattress or Melt Pieces from 1965-68. These works were presented on wooden blocks, inherently influencing their shapes. Kuehn borrowed the title from a cultural-anthropological essay by Claude Lévi-Strauss, who wrote about the polarity of sexes of the moon and the sun (Le sexe des astres, 1973). This reference adds an additional level of physicality and emotionality to the formally abstract work.

Courtesy of Häusler Contemporary | Photo: Studio Kuehn