Exhibition — Mar 23, 2019 until Jan 26, 2020

Hybrid Sculpture presents a selection of work from the collection that reveals how radically sculpture has changed since 1990. The exhibition features more than twenty pieces by nineteen artists, most of them large-scale works.

  • Thomas Hirschhorn, ‘Neighbours’, 2002. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
    Thomas Hirschhorn, ‘Neighbours’, 2002. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
  • Magali Reus, ‘Arbroath Smokie’, 2016. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
    Magali Reus, ‘Arbroath Smokie’, 2016. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
  • Cosima von Bonin, ‘Markus und Blinky’, 2000. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
    Cosima von Bonin, ‘Markus und Blinky’, 2000. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
  • Jessica Stockholder, ‘Coupling’, 1998. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
    Jessica Stockholder, ‘Coupling’, 1998. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
  • Marc Bijl, ‘Suicide Machine’, 2003. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
    Marc Bijl, ‘Suicide Machine’, 2003. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
  • KAYA, S is for Secret Life (Chamberbag Banana Roll)’, 2014-2016. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
    KAYA, S is for Secret Life (Chamberbag Banana Roll)’, 2014-2016. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
  • Front: Jeff Koons, ‘Mound of Flowers’, 1991. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Back: John Knight, ‘Autotypes, A Work in Situ’, 2011. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
    Front: Jeff Koons, ‘Mound of Flowers’, 1991. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Back: John Knight, ‘Autotypes, A Work in Situ’, 2011. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
  • Keith Edmier, Cycas Orogeny’, 2003-2004. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
    Keith Edmier, ‘Cycas Orogeny’, 2003-2004. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
  • Tobias Rehbergher, ‘Männer verlieren Frauen, Frauen verlieren Männer, Menschen verlieren das Leben’, 2002. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
    Tobias Rehbergher, ‘Männer verlieren Frauen, Frauen verlieren Männer, Menschen verlieren das Leben’, 2002. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Peter Tijhuis

Blurring the boundaries

The title Hybrid Sculpture refers to the fact that almost none of the works looks like a sculpture in the traditional sense: the artists blur the boundaries between sculpture and painting, performance, video art and design. Some of the artworks have never been shown in the museum before. For the artists in Hybrid Sculpture, the aim is not to create a ‘pure’ sculpture informed by the classic sculptural properties such as volume and space. Instead, their practice centres around combining a variety of media and appropriating objects from pop culture and everyday life, transforming them by changing their size, colour or material.

These purchases and donations of the past thirty years demonstrate the freedom with which contemporary artists approach sculpture, constantly challenging and expanding the medium’s limits. They have completely redefined the domain of sculpture, and we are proud that we can show this based on our own collection.

— Leontine Coelewij, curator contemporary art and curator of the exhibition

For instance, Marc Bijl’s Suicide Machine (2003) consists of a motorbike accompanied by the statement ‘Ready to Crash and Burn’, Cerith Wyn Evans chooses to execute his text in white neon, while John Knight’s installation is composed of porcelain plates, and Dorothy Akpene Amenuke has created a wall-filling textile artwork. The installation by Jimmy Robert contains the remnants of a past performance, including a nineteenth-century gold-plated folding screen that served as a backdrop, stage and room divider, and mirrors worn by the artist during the performance. In Abroath Smokie (2016), Magali Reus uses fabric and leather processing materials to create sculptural forms that, while not directly referring to existing objects, still evoke associations with saddles, motorbikes and blankets. The Schauspieler series by Isa Genzken consists of extravagantly dressed mannequins in theatrical poses and setting. These “urban cowboys” and “aliens”, as she calls them, could be extras from a futuristic film. For this series Genzken used garments from her own wardrobe and with the “Schauspieler” explored both the limits of the self-portrait and the boundary between private identity and public image. 

Hybrid Sculpture includes work by:
Dorothy Akpene Amenuke (GH, 1968), Marc Bijl (NL, 1970), Rob Birza (NL, 1962), Rosella Biscotti (IT, 1978), Cosima von Bonin (KE, 1962),  Paul Chan (US, 1973), KAYA (Kerstin Brätsch (DE, 1979) and Debo Eilers (US, 1974)), Keith Edmier (US, 1967), Isa Genzken (DE, 1948), Thomas Hirschhorn (CH, 1957), John Knight (US, 1945), Jeff Koons (US, 1955), Louise Lawler (US, 1947), Helen Marten (GB, 1985), Magali Reus (NL, 1981), Jimmy Robert (FR, 1975), Jessica Stockholder (US, 1959), Cerith Wyn Evans (GB, 1958)

Stedelijk Turns

This exhibition is part of STEDELIJK TURNS, a research-driven programme that focuses on the museum collection and offers fresh insights and interpretations. 

AUDIO TOUR

An audio tour in which Leontine Coelewij, Stedelijk curator contemporary art, talks about the works in the show, is available for free at the museum and on this webpage. The audio tour is offered in Dutch and English.

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