GEORGE WIDENER at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin

GEORGE WIDENER, "Birthday map (weekends)", 2012 Mixed media on paper, 135 x 171,5 cm, 

Courtesy Susanne Zander gallery, Cologne © photo: Bernhard Schaub

secret universe IV.
George Widener
25 January - 16 June 2013

Hamburger Bahnhof dedicates its "secret universe" exhibition series to artists who have been largely ignored by the established art discourse.
After the third exhibition in the series, which presented works by the American artist Morton Bartlett and was extended to 15 October 2012, the fourth part of "secret universe" is showing George Widener's complex number pictures.

Born in Kentucky in 1962, Widener developed an early interest in numbers, calendars, numerology, historical data, population statistics, and mathematical calculations. In his clearly structured drawings he combines real historical events, such as the sinking of the Titanic, with his own calculations, analyzing both world events and his own biography and developing specific codes for the super-intelligent computer of the future. Influenced by the theories of Ray Kurzweil, an early researcher on artificial intelligences, Widener is convinced that in the year 2045 human brains will meld with high-power computers and consciousness will become software. With images based on secret algorithms, Widener wishes to provide intelligent entertainment for these supercomputers and make them positively inclined towards humanity. For Widener numbers and dates are not patterns that are intellectually reflected; they are part of his internal make-up, his fundamental system for perceiving the world. George Widener is namely a savant, that is a person with an unusual, isolated talent for numbers and calendars.
The fourth part of "secret universe" offers insights into Widener's complex body of work and shows the most important series of works by the artist as well as a new sequence of drawings, which were developed specifically for the exhibition. This is George Widener's first solo exhibition in a European museum.

The "secret universe" series has been made possible by the 'About Change, Stiftung'.

Curated by Claudia Dichter and Udo Kittelmann

www.hamburgerbahnhof.de

GEORGE WIDENER, "Magic Sqare (Robot Game)", 2011,122 x 122 cm, mixed media on canvas,

Courtesy Susanne Zander gallery, Cologne © photo: Bernhard Schaub

HERBERT HOFFMANN at Halle Saint Pierre, Paris

HERBERT HOFFMANN, "Karl Oergel", 1957, 28,5 cm x 28,5 cm,Vintage Print, 

Courtesy Galerie Susanne Zander / Galerie Gebr. Lehmann

HERBERT HOFFMANN, "Alfons Devinast", 1956, 28,5 cm x 28,5 cm,Vintage Print, 

Courtesy Galerie Susanne Zander / Galerie Gebr. Lehmann

HEY! modern art & pop culture / Part II
25/01 – 23/08 2013
opening: Thursday, 24 January

Halle Saint Pierre, Paris

Pour la seconde fois, le musée de la Halle Saint Pierre et la revue HEY! s’associent pour présenter l’exposition HEY! modern art & pop culture. Anne & Julien, créateurs de la revue HEY! proposent une nouvelle rencontre entre les courants de la pop culture, les formes populaires de l’art moderne et contemporain, l’art outsider et l’art singulier. Cette fois encore avec des artistes rares qui ont fait germer leurs talents inestimables dans les marges.
Alors que la première édition réunissait plus de 64 artistes internationaux, HEY! modern art & pop culture / Part II renouvelle l’expérience avec de nombreuses figures issues de courants artistiques similaires et garantit la même “puissance de découverte”, tout en présentant des figures de proue telles que Joe Coleman, Louis Pons, Mati Klarwein, Masami Teraoka...
    Notre société est une « culture-monde » à laquelle l’art pictural n’échappe pas. Aujourd’hui, l’esprit de la rue et du populaire est partout. Dans l’esprit de la revue HEY!, l’exposition se veut le relais et la caisse de résonance de cet art urbain, pop et outsider dont Heather Nevay, Kate Clark, Mu Pan, Amanda Smith, Handiedan ou encore Beb-deum (…) incarnent la nouvelle génération.

Read more about HEY! modern art & pop culture here!

HALLE SAINT PIERRE
2 rue Ronsard
75018 PARIS

www.hallesaintpierre.org

Glaube an die magische Wirkung der Bilder...

Christian Saehrendts Artikel über die Sammlung Prinzhorn
in Neue Züricher Zeitung (21.01.2013)

ELSE BLANKENHORN "Ohne Titel", Öl auf Fotopapier, (Bild: Sammlung Prinzhorn)

Krankheit adelt die Kunst – eine Vorstellung, die auf die Romantik zurückgeht, in der das Genie am Rande des Wahnsinns lokalisiert wurde. Die im Uniklinikum Heidelberg beheimatete und weltweit einzigartige Sammlung von Kunstwerken aus der Hand von Psychiatriepatienten fasziniert Künstler seit den 1920er Jahren. 

Die Bildnerei von Geisteskranken – heute neutraler bezeichnet als die Kunst von Psychose- oder Psychiatrieerfahrenen – hat Künstler immer wieder fasziniert und beeinflusst. Auslöser dieser Faszination ist die ungeheure Intensität und existenzielle Dringlichkeit, die aus manchen Werken von Psychiatriepatienten hervorleuchtet. Aus ihnen scheint der pure Überlebenskampf von Menschen, die sich in einer schweren Krise befinden. Ihr Kunstschaffen ist der Versuch – oftmals mit limitierten, ungelenk und naiv wirkenden gestalterischen Mitteln –, ihre aus den Fugen geratene Welt zu erklären und sich auf diese Weise selbst zu stabilisieren. Der heutige Betrachter spürt noch den enormen Druck, unter dem die Patienten standen, er spürt ihren Glauben an die magische Wirkung der Bilder. So meinte beispielsweise Vanda Viera-Schmidt, sie müsse jeden Tag eine Zeichnung machen, dürfe niemals aussetzen, denn nur so könne der Weltfrieden bewahrt werden. Ist das nicht ein Glaubensbekenntnis an die Kunst, wie man es im professionellen Kunstbetrieb schon lange nicht mehr abzulegen wagt?

Lesen Sie den vollständigen Artikel hier!
www.nzz.ch
prinzhorn.ukl-hd.de

REVIEW // PAUL LAFFOLEY in NEW YORK TIMES, Dec. 17th

PAUL LAFFOLEY, The Solitron, 1997, Oil, acrylic, ink and vinyl lettering on canvas, 73 1/2 x 73 1/2 in, 
Courtesy Galerie Susanne Zander

                                  

                    

Paul Laffoley: ‘The Boston Visionary Cell’
By KEN JOHNSON, published in New York Times January 17, 2013

Paul Laffoley, I suspect, was supposed to be a Neo-Platonist like Giordano Bruno, who was executed in 1600 for publishing his heretical beliefs. Fortunately for him and us, Mr. Laffoley was born into a more tolerant time and place: mid-20th-century Boston. Under the aegis of the Boston Visionary Cell, an organization he founded, he has been able to pursue his metaphysical research freely and to display his findings in the form of the electrifying, diagrammatic paintings he has produced over the past five decades.
Judging by his mandala-type compositions rendered in high-contrast colors and black and white, usually on square canvases, Mr. Laffoley has yet to encounter a system of mystical thought he could not absorb into his own project. Profusely annotated with press-on vinyl letters, his works refer to a dizzying array of mental adventurers, from Socrates to the Theosophist charlatan Madame Blavatsky. His topics, illustrated by realistic images and abstract structures, include U.F.O.’s, time travel, alchemy, the mind-body problem, utopia, relativity and quantum theories, and science-fiction movies like “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” Titles like “Dimensionality: The Manifestation of Fate” (1992) give the impression of a philosopher who long ago went off the rails laid down by conventional rationalism.
Mr. Laffoley’s works may seem impenetrable, but they are not nonsensical. They limn a richly provocative cartography of consciousness itself and its heretofore under-realized possibilities. This show of works dating from the early ’60s to last year is an excellent introduction to one of the most unusual creative minds of our time.
www.nytimes.com

PAUL LAFFOLEY. The Boston Visionary Cell
at Ken Fine Art, NY
January 4 - March 9, 2013
www.kentfineart.net