“European Abstraction of the 1960’s and 1970’s” Exhibition

Stellan Holm Gallery

poster for “European Abstraction of the 1960’s and 1970’s” Exhibition

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Stellan Holm Gallery presents the exhibition ‘European Abstraction of the 1960s and 1970s.’ The exhibition will feature works by Marc Adrian, Rodolfo Aricó, Bernard Aubertin, Alberto Biasi, Hermann Göpfert, Turi Simeti, Heinz Mack, Erwin Thorn, Hans Bischoffshausen, Jef Verheyen and Paul van Hoeydonck.

“It may feasibly be argued that it was either gesture or geometry that shaped our early understanding of wall-based forms of twentieth century abstract art. Yet if we put aside the abstracted visual objects of pictorial Cubism that were turned from a state of ‘thingness’ into multifaceted allusive viewpoints, that of pure abstraction (so-called) favoured the language of formal metaphors, while running in parallel lyrical or gestural abstraction favoured the language of performance and the mark. In different ways both initially undermined many of the necessary ‘thingly’ properties inherent to the art object that was produced. While pure abstraction concentrated on either the spiritual and/or invisible through means of inferred or deferred allusion (transcendence of immanence), the gestural focused on a phenomenological perception as a performed process of presence and mark making. With the innovation and advent of asymmetrical supports in the expanded field, and the removal of abstraction from its flatness as to its predetermined relationship with the wall, a new creative alignment between the art object and the space around it became charged and open to significant possibilities. For asymmetry allows works to optically break out into exhibition space by means of its non-definable geometry, it denies static muteness, and it displaces the predetermining idea of form and foregrounds the wider uncertainties of shape. As a consequence a genuine dialectical visual engagement ensues and pre-existing internal arguments as to form become openly contested by issues thrown up by shape and dimension. The immediate perception of a shape focuses on purely external outlines and boundaries as the basis of its comprehension. Any exhibition today that takes on board these subtle distinctions suggests a renewed and fresh re-engagement with issues of abstract geometry and asymmetry, form and shape, and material presence and immaterial absence. With this in mind the possibilities are reopened as regards to rethinking earlier ideas of abstract and concrete art that were once conflictive and highly polemical. It is not so much a question of arguing for a misalignment of the earlier ideas, quite the contrary, but to consider them in a new light free or their former adversarial polemics. The artists shown here cover over half a century of investigations into the conceptual and perceptual parameters of abstract art.”

Mark Gisbourne
January 2017

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