Ice Hot

Franz Ackermann, Darren Almond, Gleen Brown, André Butzer, Eberhard Havekost, Jeff Koons, Michel Majerus, Beatriz Milhazes, Sarah Morris, Albert Oehlen, Manfred Pernice, Neo Rauch, Daniel Richter, Christopher Wool

Painting has once again proven itself to be tough and able to survive – having been long-neglected in the shadow of photography, video and the readymade, it now vehemently demands its rightful place on the current scene. In the art of the young generation of painters the sensual lust for colour and format, for gesture and narrative is joined by the additional knowledge of the digital media that shape our everyday environment. Here, the panel painting does not take an elitist, oppositional stance against the mass media, but instead takes up and transforms their formulae and handling of the reproduced image. Expressive traditions live on in the new painting as do cool strategies, however the painters always act in a calculated manner and reflect the history of their medium.

Insight into contemporary painting is offered by the Scharpff Collection, which has occupied a significant position within the Kunsthalle since the opening of the Galerie der Gegenwart, with works by artists such as Jeff Koons, Cady Noland and Robert Gober. In recent years the collectors Rudolf and Ute Scharpff have focussed their interest on the new painting scene; amongst others, they purchased key works by Neo Rauch, Franz Ackermann, Michel Majerus and Daniel Richter. These are joined by paintings by Sarah Morris, Glenn Brown and Darren Almond, as well as a group of works by Albert Oehlen, whose ironic yet serious observations on the state of painting and the »world situation« have been an inspiration and an example for many a painter of the younger generation.

The top-lit rooms on the third floor of the Galerie der Gegenwart, normally home to the classic German painters Baselitz, Polke and Richter, offer the space and light required for a first résumé of the new painting boom. The exhibition had been organized jointly with the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, where it was shown from 20 March to 13 June 2004.

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