„BILDER IM KOPF, KÖRPER IM RAUM“ – FRANZ ERHARD WALTHER

In the organizer's words:

In the early 1960s, Franz Erhard Walther formulated a new concept of work - in the context of minimalism and beyond the classical understanding of sculpture and painting - that included the viewer as an actor: His First Set of Works (1963-1969), consisting of 58 activatable elements, is legendary. In this way, the artist concretized his understanding of sculpture; he understood the executed action as a "work form": Gestures and actions become an essential component of his works. His work as a professor at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts made him an influential teacher, and the art-historical significance of his work is undisputed.

Even in his early work, the artist incorporated the processual and uncertain as a design principle; during his time in Düsseldorf, experimentation and innovation played a major role. The Rhineland became an important place of study and work, which is made clear in the exhibition and in the accompanying catalog with partly unpublished documents.

From the beginning of 1963, he used fabric - a hitherto rarely used artistic material - for the production of almost all activation objects. From 1966, he also applied the "storage form", which he had already tried out in 1962, to the works wrapped in fabric as an independent work status. In the wall formations from the late 1970s onwards, he achieved an incomparable interweaving of painting, sculpture and architecture that continues to this day.

GESTURES AND ACTIONS BECOME AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE WORK.

The exhibition presents a concentrated, representative selection of action-based works and drawings from various periods as an "inside view". It is designed to be open and dialogical and shows Walther's art as unfinished and corresponding with the imaginations and actions of the visitors - the "images in the head" and subsequently "bodies in space" emerge.

Early works such as the handpieces lead to the first set of works, which are followed by walking paths, spatial elements, wall formations, the New Alphabet or the action paths. Another special feature are the reconstructions of the Sieben Werkgesänge - a room from 1964 in the Galerie Junge Kunst in Fulda - and the corresponding ZIEGELTON (Fulda Room) from 1997/98.

Specially made exhibition copies can be used by visitors on the central activation area in the center of the exhibition - two installations in the exhibition space allow an unusual view and perspective on this action area. It demonstrates that Walther's art is alive, accessible, anchored in the here and now and, above all, democratic and without hierarchical ideas. No special prior knowledge is required to carry out the simple actions - his visual language transcends borders and is universally understandable.

Price information:

13,00 € Day ticket