Schriftenreihe der Forschungsstelle Informelle Kunst
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Edited by:
Anne-Kathrin Hinz
Art informel was a key artistic innovation in the 1950s, and its impact continues to this day. Since 2019, the Institute of Art History at the University of Bonn has been home to the Forschungsstelle Informelle Kunst, committed to the intensification of research in this field, which has been scant in recent years. As from 2021, a dedicated series of publications will document the research centre’s projects and make an innovative contribution to the study of art informel from a global and transdisciplinary perspective. The primary aim is to publish current research contributions - in the form of both essay collections and monographs – and to edit significant foreign-language source texts on art informel in German translation.
Topics
Bilingual edition (English/German) / Zweisprachige Ausgabe (deutsch/englisch)
Informal art developed into the dominant art movement in Europe from the early 1950s to the early 1960s. The art historical view of this art movement, which is detached from classical principles of form and design, has so far mostly focused on its male representatives. The volume now takes a new look at the art of Informel and honors high-profile positions by 16 female artists. In addition to well-known names such as Maria Lassnig, Brigitte Meier-Denninghoff, Judit Reigl and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, long-forgotten artists are being rediscovered. Using art-sociological questions about networks, participation in exhibitions and reception, the mechanisms of the art world are also investigated.
Exhibitions “Forgotten artistic positions of the 50s and 60s”
Neue Galerie Kassel: 11.10.2024 – 26.1.2025
Kunsthalle Schweinfurt: 20.2.2025 – 22.6.2025
Emil Schumacher Museum, Hagen: 31.08.2025 – 11.01.2026
Abstract paintings along with their often ambiguous visual language are not only difficult to grasp for viewers, but also for art historians to interpret. This is because an abstract work requires a more intensive examination than for example figurative representations. Nevertheless, artists have dealt with events of contemporary history or personal experiences in abstract paintings. These include K. O. Götz, Michael Morgner, Georg Karl Pfahler, Gerhard Richter, K. R. H. Sonderborg, Dieter Tucholke and Günther Uecker. Selected works by these artists show how the relationship between abstraction and reality was defined after 1945. Also, how specific functions have developed to represent contemporary historical events.
- Contemporary History in Abstract Painting after 1945 in the Federal Republic and the GDR
- K. O. Götz, Michael Morgner, Georg Karl Pfahler, Gerhard Richter, K. R. H. Sonderborg, Dieter Tucholke, Günther Uecker
- Publications of the Research Center for Informal Art
The first volume of the series »Schriften der Forschungsstelle Informelle Kunst« (Publications of the Research Center for Informal Art) documents the results of the first »Research Colloquium Informal Art«. The contributions of young academics cover a broad spectrum of relevant topics of contemporary research. These include discussions of individual artists and artist groups and their national and international connections, (interdisciplinary) questions from the fields of visual studies, exhibition, reception and impact history, as well as transnational comparative and cultural-political perspectives.
- First Volume of the Publications of the Research Center for Informal Art
- Informal Art, History of concepts & reception
- Young academics
The book traces the eventful history of a show that took place 70 years ago and marked the international breakthrough for many of the participating artists: Peintures et sculptures non-figuratives en Allemagne d’aujourd‘hui at the Cercle Volney, Paris. The private initiative of the Parisian gallery owner René Drouin and his German supporter, Wilhelm Wessel, was an experiment in cultural diplomacy between France and Germany in 1955. The concept was deliberately directed against the canonized view of art promoted by the Deutsche Kunstrat (German Art Council) and leading museum directors, and placed the representatives of the middle and young generations of Art Informel on an equal footing with the established old masters of abstraction.
- With historical views of the exhibition and sources on the history
- With works by Willi Baumeister, Rupprecht Geiger, K. O. Götz, Norbert Kricke, Brigitte Meier-Denninghoff, Marie-Louise von Rogister, Emil Schumacher, Fritz Winter and others
- Exhibition, Emil-Schumacher-Museum Hagen, 04/13/2025 – 08/03/2025
