Joel Shapiro
26 February - 25 September 2011
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| Exhibition view, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 26 February - 25 September 2011
Foto: Lothar Schnepf
© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2011 |
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JOEL SHAPIRO
26.2 – 25.9.2011
A number of free-hanging, colored wooden beams help to generate a new
feeling for what space and sculpture can be. American sculptor Joel
Shapiro (*1941) will create an installation of new and preexisting works
for the Museum Ludwig’s big Oberlichtsaal. The pieces will be
interwoven into a new structure in the gallery space.
Freely floating or barely visible and suspended from ceiling or floor on
thin wires, Shapiro’s works move in space, thereby transforming the
gallery itself into an equally immense and airy sculpture. The picture
varies with each step, as borders, dimensions, and colors change. The
artist toys both with perception and the construction of space, while
his works are not exclusively tied to this one room. Despite all his
connections to modernist and minimalist traditions, he produces
surprising (work)-constellations and totally new spatial perceptions.
When dealing with materials and also in his relationship vis-à-vis
space, the recurring issue is transformation. He addresses alteration
and termination of supposedly established attributions. Although reduced
to basic geometric forms and made of painted wood, the works in the
show develop an almost flowing ease and space-dissolving movement.
Shapiro’s concept is reminiscent of the Russian constructivists: they
attributed the highest priority to experiencing space within their art
production. Key terms like construction and dynamics as well as their
interplay were pivotal to their expansive, voluminous oeuvre. Yet, even
as Shapiro plays with this formal heritage, he transgresses it with
ease, freeing it from its utopian charge and leaving material and form
their space. Born in New York in 1941, Joel Shapiro studied Fine Arts at
New York University from 1964-69. In 1976 and in 1980, he represented
the United States at the 37th and the 39th Venice Biennale. His works
were also included at documenta 6 and documenta 7. Shapiro lives and
works in New York.
Dr. Julia Friedrich
www.museum-ludwig.de
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