Open Outcome – New Works from the Collection

This new exhibition remains indebted to the constructivist spirit of the collection, showing modernist and contemporary paintings and sculptures that explore the traditions of geometrical forms and their experiments with illusionist effects.

The works of Swiss artist Philippe Decrauzat, for example, can be seen as a continuation of the Op Art and Minimalism movements in the 1960s. They use grids and dense arrangements of coloured lines and curves to undermine the flat surface of the canvas and create the remarkably convincing optical illusion of three-dimensional forms.

Piero Dorazio was one of the most significant pioneers of abstraction in Italy, working in the second half of the twentieth century. He was already then using a grid pattern consisting of overlapping coloured stripes that made the canvas seem to vibrate, masterfully celebrating the light and shade effects of colour.

Francois Morellet, David Nash and Richard Long explore the basic geometrical forms of the circle, the square and the cross, using various different sculptural techniques and materials like neon tubes, coal and stones.

In his powerful and dynamic steel sculptures, Bernar Venet uses the line as a defining element. With a five-part installation consisting of circular segments, straight lines and angles and also a work from his famous series Undetermined Lines, Venet’s work has a prominent place in this collection exhibition.

The politically committed work of US artist Robert Longo is central to this exhibition, and it marks a contrast to the abstraction of the other works here. In the tradition of history painting, his oversized charcoal drawings refer to contemporary themes – religious conflict, disputes on nuclear arms and gun laws. One of his most recent works, in monumental dimensions and very moving, addresses today’s migration across the Mediterranean Sea. Longo’s pictures very directly draw our attention to unresolved contemporary global issues. The outcome is open.

With these and many more artists, this exhibition again shows the diverse range and high quality of this significant German private collection.

Artists of the Exhibition:

Bill Beckley, Anthony Caro, Stéphane Dafflon, Philippe Decrauzat, Jiri Georg Dokoupil, Henrik Eiben, Günther Förg, Karl Gerstner, Raimund Girke, Peter Halley, Richard Long, Robert Longo, Gerold Miller, Maurizio Nannucci, David Nash, Herbert Oehm, Tony Oursler, Bernar Venet, Ben Willikens, Yvaral, Beat Zoderer u. a.