Galerie der Stadt Sindelfingen
18 September – 6 November 2005

Daimler Contemporary
9 December 2005 – March 2006

Participating Artists

Exhibition Views

Introduction

The principal interest of Daimler's collection strategy has been extended over the past few years to include examples of American protominimalist painting from the 1940s; for the present exhibition, Frederick Hammersley and Karl Benjamin should be mentioned as two prominent representatives of the so-called ›Abstract Classicists‹.

Alexander Liberman
Revolving; 1959
61 x 91,4 cm oil on canvas

These Classicists from the American west coast constitute a counterpoint to the minimalists of the 1950s and 60s, with representative works by Ilya Bolotowsky, Alexander Liberman, Al Held, Gene Davis, Robert Ryman, Oli Sihvonen and David Novros, who are associated with the New York art scene. A chronologically parallel development - departing from the transfer and reception of Bauhaus and Constructivism to South America and India - is readily comprehensible in selected works of Almir da Silva Mavignier, Yaacov Agam, Carlos Cruz-Diez and S. H. Raza.

.This dialogue, extending from Europe to America and further on to Asia, had its origins in a lively exchange between individual artistic personalities. Mention can be made here, for example, of Shusaku Arakawa, Taadaki Kuwayama, Isamu Noguchi and Keiji Usami.

They stand alongside Japanese artists whose contemporary works render thematically legible the current preoccupation with their own cultural identity (Are You Meaning Company) and the encounter with western European artistic trends. As a consequence of the »Art Scope Japan« promotion award established by DaimlerJapan in 1991, the Daimler Art Collection will in future also closely monitor the Japanese artistic scene
 

Haim Steinbach (*1944/IL)
untitled (dust pans, door mats), 1990,
Wood-laminate and objects,
111 x 216 x 80 cm,

Vincent Szarek (*1973/USA) Red Hoods, 2003,
Urethane on fibre glas
213 x 109 x 20 cm,

. A critical revision of the modernistic art of the 1950s and 60s was initiated in the 1980s - with a generation of artists who constitute a bridging function between the art of the post-war years and that of the young artists represented in the Collection. The statements of the formalistic tradition of Modern Classicism, as manifested in European and American Hard Edge and Minimalism, are subjected to critical examination. Among this generation, a certain tension can be discerned especially between the American position - extended here to include the Australian artists from the Collection - and that of Asia.

In the present exhibition, the American and Australian representatives Haim Steinbach, John Nixon and Stephen Bram are contrasted against the corresponding generation of Japanese artists such as Yuko Shiraishi and Yuji Takeoka. This divergence is due on the one hand, for example, to the fixation on objects from the world of everyday life, as is borne out in the works of artists such as Haim Steinbach; on the other hand, the art of the Far East also concerns itself with the enduring discourse with Zen philosophy as the fundamental basis of Japanese life.

For the first time, the exhibition is presenting works by young artists from India and Georgia. With Gia Edzgveradze and Tamara K. E., two generations are represented which operate firstly against the background of Conceptual Art and its treatment of the structure of language, and secondly with the symbolic content of a traditional pictorial iconography (extending even to religious paragons). This is reflected above all in the works of Edzgveradze, which make use of ciphers and extend the classic panel painting. In the case of Tamara K. E., Christian topoi (Madonna, Christ on the cross) serve to illustrate the contemporary analysis of gender-specific casting.
 

Shilpa Gupta (*1979/IND),
Untitled, 2004
Videoprojektion (Länge ca. 8 m)
mit interaktiver Computeranimation

Guy Tillim (*1962/ZA),
Kamajoor-miliz, 2001/04,
Digitalprint. 3/5, 79,5 x 53 cm,

This topic, which has its roots in feminist cultural theories of the 1970s and finds its extension in university research under the name of Gender Studies, continues to permeate the artistic scene to the present day. A link can be established here to the Collection's recent acquisition of works by two Indian artists, Pamela Singh and Shilpa Gupta. These artists portray Indian society as still being ordered on a largely hierarchical basis, in which the women are yet to stake out their own territory outside the confines of the family. The works of Alfredo Jaar, Dmitry Gutov, Uri Tzaig and Guy Tillim also set accents with regard to reflections that are critical of society and are political. On display is an impressive photographic series of young Kamajoor militias by Guy Tillim, winner of the Daimler Award for South African Culture, a prize first presented in 2000. Alfredo Jaar, hailed as one of the leading socially critical concept artists since his appearance at the 1987 documenta, is represented by an illuminated box dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi. The works of Jaar are linked to those of Dmitry Gutov, for example, by a highly critical fundamental insight: language and image today are largely the tools of self-delusion, obfuscation and the conscious falsification of history; they can not assume to such an extent the role of a medium of liberal encounter with one's own identity and that of others.

Participating Artists Exhibition Views