Günther Förg

This spring the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam illuminates the rich oeuvre of the German artist Günther Förg. The survey features no fewer than 100 works, including some pieces never seen before in a museum.

A major survey of the German artist Günther Förg (1952–2013) opens at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam on 26 May 2018. Under the title A Fragile Beauty, the show reveals the full breadth and scope of Förg’s oeuvre. Taking its cue from the artist himself— who presented his work in installations conceived with exquisite precision —each room is individual in nature. Included are Förg’s early monochrome paintings, together with his color studies, (architectural) photographs, sculptures, and late spot paintings. A Fragile Beauty traces the entire trajectory of Förg’s career. This comprehensive survey offers audiences a chance to engage with the complexity of his themes and fascinations, and witness the evolution of his experimental, radical approach.

Intriguing

Günther Förg was as equally influential on the twentieth-century German art scene as, for example, Martin Kippenberger. He produced photographs and paintings, as well as wall paintings, sculptures, and reliefs. In the 1980s and ’90s Förg’s work was continually reinterpreted: initially considered a postmodernist, he was later seen as engaging with the legacy of expressionism. Förg was, without doubt, an artist who challenged the parameters of disciplines. His work contains references to famous predecessors and artists he admired, such as Edvard Munch, Philip Guston, Barnett Newman, and Clyfford Still. Förg’s interdisciplinary practice questioned artistic conventions and analyzed modernism and its aesthetic.