The principle of formlessness

Vernissage 09. October 2020

Ausstellungsdauer 09. October to 11. November 2020

With our new exhibition Informel - "The Principle of Formlessness", this time we are taking a journey into German and European art history of the post-war period.

For many years, Galerie Bentler has been dealing with the artists of the ZERO movement, with Günther Uecker, Heinz Mack and Otto Piene and others who wanted to start from scratch with their art at the end of the 1950s, wanted to create something completely new and thus set themselves apart from the existing and existing in art. But what did ZERO art want to distance itself from, what did this art movement want to overcome, what was there that they wanted to turn away from?

Our new exhibition aims to answer these and many other questions. We would like to look at the predominant art movement of the 1950s and show what its outstanding artists have done in their work from that time until today. Bernard Schultze, Fred Thieler, Karl-Otto Götz and others created works of lasting beauty and significance into old age. They established a "direction of painting that, free from all rules ... arrives at bold and fantastic images" (1).

"The artist no longer composes towards a pre-planned result. Instead, he allows dynamic processes to become vivid: He fixes the act of painting itself in the moment of highest concentration as a trace of movement in the picture ..." (2)

Consequently, the most important representatives of Informal Painting exhibited at documenta II in Kassel in 1959. From then on, their works have been among the most important works of German and European post-war art.

"In retrospect, Informel ... must be regarded as one of the most original achievements of post-war art. From today's perspective, it marks the interface between modernism and postmodernism and continues to have an impact on contemporary art." (2)

Undoubtedly an extremely interesting and exciting topic, which we have not yet discussed with you in the gallery.

We are particularly pleased to have Prof. Christoph Zuschlag from the Institute of Art History at the University of Bonn as our guest this evening. After all, Prof. Zuschlag knew some of the artists personally.

https://www.forschungsstelle-informelle-kunst.uni-bonn.de/

https://www.bernard-schultze.org

(1) Oxford Languages
(2) Hans-Jürgen Schwalm, Foundation for Informal Art