| HEADS OR TAILS. The quantification of life in the 19th century |
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until 26 February
2012
Museum of 19th Century Arts and Technology LA8
The exhibition highlights the triumph of numbers in all realms of life in the 19th century, a triumph whose impact is still being felt today. An exhibit like the finger calculating machine for children, the school hand-held calculator of the time, so to speak, is something we still find touching today. At the same time, it too testifies to the radical quantification of everyday life that occurred parallel to the introduction of compulsory education and led to the standardisation of once locally different units of measurement and calculation, to the exact geographical and statistical measurement of the world, to the high precision of wooden and metal weighing scales, cash registers and calculating machines.
The quantification of everything in the 19th century unified practical life on the one hand, while multiplying values and cultural interpretations on the other.
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Altenburger Spielkarten, 2. Hälfte 19. Jahrhundert
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| William N. Copley |
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18 February 2011 to June
2012
Museum Frieder Burda, Lichtentaler Allee 8b
The extensive William N. Copley (1919–1996) retrospective at the Museum Frieder Burda features more than eighty works by the American, who as gallery owner, artist, author, and publisher operated as an important mediator between the Surrealists and the Pop Art movement since the mid-1940s and was one of the most unconventional personalities in the art scene.
The major part of the exhibited works stem from the artist’s estate, and many of them are being shown in public for the first time. The exhibition will also present the comprehensive body of work by the artist contained in the Frieder Burda Collection. Tying in with the tradition of Dada, Surrealism, and American Pop Art, William N. Copley’s paintings are an ironic examination of the erotic game played by men and women in all of its facets. The artist developed his unconventional style very early on, one which manifests itself first and foremost in the two main protagonists in his pictorial narratives: a shapely blonde in rosy nakedness chances upon a small man in a suit, armed with the symbols of venerability and sublime sex—an umbrella and a bowler. His oeuvre is an absolute pictorial homage to the motive forces of Eros. Yet Copley does not only rely on naïvely pretty pictures, but develops substance in terms of content that does not open up to the viewer until he or she takes a closer look and unlocks the connection between the depiction and the picture’s title.
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© Estate of William N. Copley / Copley LLC., New York
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| AFRICA THROUGH THEIR OWN EYES. Researching and Imagining a Continent |
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17 March to 2 September
2012
Museum of 19th Century Arts and Technology LA8
The exhibition presents a different aspect of the 19th century encounter with Africa. On show will be African cult and everyday objects from the collections of Reinhard Klimmt, Saarbrücken, the Morat Institute, Freiburg, and Dr. Kusch, Baden-Baden. These impressive sculptures, doors, masks and musical instruments will be confronted with the circumstances under which 19th century cultural historians and aesthetes discovered Africa. For example, outstanding African objects from the renowned collections will be accompanied by the question of how the cult objects from that continent became transformed into highly sought-after art objects in Europe. Were cult objects often effective, or solely effective, because they unfolded their religious powers when concealed? Did the exhibition or collection object necessarily have to be visible? What only had an absolute value for the cult, was given an auction or insurance value in Europe.
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Emil Doerstling, The Joy of Prussian Love, 1890, oil on canvas, 80 x 94 cm
Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin
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