– Works from 1964 until 1986 and Hohem in Context of the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf: Works by Sigmar Polke and Chris Reinecke

Curator: Dr. Susanne Rennert
In cooperation with the Foundation Gerhard and Margarete Hoehme, Museum Kunstpalast, Duesseldorf.

With his painterly and plactical works, drawings and installations, whose fascinating materiality often become apparent only gradually, Gerhard Hoehme made a decisive contribution towards international art in the second half of the 20th century.

In his open and multi-layered oeuvre, Hoehme questioned and pushed the boundaries of painting and pictorial space again and again. From the beginning, the artist sought the dialogue with the beholder, irrespective of how the work materialised in the end. The subtle connections between things and relations – hence the title of his manifesto-like text of 1968 – are the key terms for understanding this artist.

In February 2015 Gerhard Hoehme would have turned 95 and Beck & Eggeling take this special occasion to present a comprehensive show of paintings and spatial works from the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Painting and conceptual precision, rich in contrast will be juxtaposed in this special show. The focus will be on Hoehme as an experimental artist: already at the end of the 1950s he had disassociated with informal visual concepts and found his own and new ways - especially regarding the partly industrial materials not used in art until then - whose important art historical relevance only becomes apparent today.

Another, separate and museal part of the exhibition Relations focuses on two of Hoehme's most important pupils from his first class at the academy: Sigmar Polke (1941 – 2010) and Chris Reinecke (*1936).

Polke's works on paper, which combine irony and wit with painterly finesse, originally stem from Hoehme's estate. He had purchased a large convolute of drawings from his former student in 1966. Chris Reinecke, another Hoehme pupil and sharp observer, created anextraor...

In his open and multi-layered oeuvre, Hoehme questioned and pushed the boundaries of painting and pictorial space again and again. From the beginning, the artist sought the dialogue with the beholder, irrespective of how the work materialised in the end. The subtle connections between things and relations – hence the title of his manifesto-like text of 1968 – are the key terms for understanding this artist.

In February 2015 Gerhard Hoehme would have turned 95 and Beck & Eggeling take this special occasion to present a comprehensive show of paintings and spatial works from the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Painting and conceptual precision, rich in contrast will be juxtaposed in this special show. The focus will be on Hoehme as an experimental artist: already at the end of the 1950s he had disassociated with informal visual concepts and found his own and new ways - especially regarding the partly industrial materials not used in art until then - whose important art historical relevance only becomes apparent today.

Another, separate and museal part of the exhibition Relations focuses on two of Hoehme's most important pupils from his first class at the academy: Sigmar Polke (1941 – 2010) and Chris Reinecke (*1936).

Polke's works on paper, which combine irony and wit with painterly finesse, originally stem from Hoehme's estate. He had purchased a large convolute of drawings from his former student in 1966. Chris Reinecke, another Hoehme pupil and sharp observer, created an extraordinary conceptual oeuvre, embedded in drawing, painting and art actions. Examples of her work from the 1960s – before Reinecke initiated the art political Lidl-art actions with Jörg Immendorff (1968-1970) - will be shown next to a recent and room-filling work from 2014.

Photographs by Erika Kiffl from the series Gerhard Hoehme in the studio, Neuss-Selikum, 1978, will also be on view.

A catalogue has been published on the occasion of the exhibition.

Gerhard Hoehme, Erika Kiffl, Sigmar Polke, Chris Reinecke