Rosemarie Trockel: Portrait of an idiosyncratic artist

Rosemarie Trockel is considered the best known artist in Germany . Nevertheless, her name is not familiar to many people. There is a reason for this: Trockel is reluctant to show up in public and do not give any interviews. But she is everywhere - at the Documenta and the Venice Biennale, as a long -time professor of the Düsseldorf Art Academy and as a founding member of the world's Academy in Cologne.

Rosemarie Trockel was born in Schwerte in North Rhine-Westphalia in 1952 and grew up in Leverkusen. drawing very early . In 1971 she began studying at the University of Education in Cologne, from 1974 to 1978 she studied painting under Werner Schriefers at the Cologne works schools.

When traveling through the USA, Trockel came into contact with numerous feminist artists who inspired them strongly. The masonry became a central topic in Trockel's works, which proved to be a guide for many contemporary artists.

For years, Trockel took third or fourth place in the art compass ranking of the most sought-after artists in the world. For the time being, her works were paid to attention, especially in the United States, and later it became successful in Europe. Trockel caused a major sensation in 1997 on Documenta X in Kassel when she the "House for Pigs and People" together with Carsten Höller .

The project in which a pork family was housed should serve as a symbol for the "pig in humans".

Knitting pictures: away from outdated gender roles

From the mid-1980s, Rosemarie Trockel famous for her knitting pictures. Knitting - banal, female and not worth mentioning - the artist interpreted in a feminist way. At a time when the knitting boom even arrived at universities and in parliament, drying presented work like "Life means knitting pantyhose".

The highlight: The patterns were manufactured machine.

Not only drying pictures became an indictment against the traditional gender roles. The stove had a special fascination with the artist. Her photography "Sabine" from 1994 offers an ironic interpretation of the "Hinking at the Herd": It shows a naked woman with sunglasses who crouches on a stove.

Herd plates keep coming up in Trockel's total work - sometimes as a sculpture, sometimes as a graphic. In the MMK Frankfurt, some of these stove plates spread a special message. They are glowing hot - if you touch it, you burn. It is thus shown that the woman herself has her weapons in the role as a “crop on the stove”.

Social criticism as an important part of contemporary art

For Rosemarie Trockel, art primarily a means of moving her fellow human beings to think. Therefore, she takes up topics in her works of art that society cannot ignore. This is particularly good in the “Shutter” from 2006.

What appears at first glance like a wall made of brick stone turns out to be a bit of meat on a closer look. With this work, Trockel wanted to express how strongly modern companies are dependent on meat consumption.

There is hardly an issue that Trockel does not take care of. The Holocaust plays a role in its works, as does the discrimination against older people and the connection between alcohol and child abuse. also grants animals "house for pigeons, people and rats" at the Expo 2000 in Hanover.

Significant exhibitions

The first position in Bonn was followed by exhibitions in the United States. In 1988 she was involved in the Made in Cologne, in 1997 she was invited to documenta X in Kassel. Rosemarie Trockel was the first woman to exhibit her works in the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1999.

The exhibition "MärzGschnee ûnd Wiebôrweh Sand am Môargô Niana Me" in the Kunsthaus Bregenz in 2015 was supposed to be her last for seven years. The motto of the exhibition ("The next morning the March snow and the pain of women disappeared") is an old Bregenz saying that makes fun of the pain of women.

However, the next exhibition was not long in coming, because in September 2020, Rosemarie Trockel came back to the city gallery in the Lenbachhaus in the Lenbachhaus in Munich as part of the event “The sun at midnight. Contemporary art from the Lenbachhaus and the Kico Foundation”.

From December 2022 to June 2023, the MMK Frankfurt a retrospective of the artist .

Rosemarie Trockel: Enigma of the art world

There are many contemporary artists, but none of them can only be enough for Rosemarie Trockel. Although she is considered the most famous artist in the world, it is still far Frida Kahlo or a Georgia Totto O'keeffe

The reason for drying anonymity is probably that she lets her art speak for herself and is silent.

Rosemarie Trockel is a confessed feminist . This attitude runs through her entire work without ever getting pushy. Trockel's works are characterized by a unique irony that only gradually opens up to the viewer.

A little reminds of Trockel of her British contemporary Tracey Emin , who also deals with questions about the frausin in her works. But where Emin reveals autobiographical, Trockel is aimed at society. She would like to provoke - but not for the sake of provocation, but for encouragement.

A number of drawings by the French film icon Brigitte Bardot starts discussions about the Lolita cult, while a polyptych in the style of Andy Warhol's "Thirteen Most Wanted Men" represents Russian President Vladimir Putin as "widow maker".

In the retrospective in the MMK Frankfurt, it is clear how much Rosemarie Trockel is also a child of her time. The oven models, which are the focus of their film "Heiliger" , no longer exists today. The whole thing seems almost nostalgic - and shows how much the role of women has changed since then. And for this change, Rosemarie Trockel also contributed valuable.

Trockel's works are always in the service of art. If you want, you can understand it as politically or socially critical, but the range of topics taken alone makes a clear classification impossible. It is not just about the position of women in society , animal welfare or mental health. Trockel allows the viewer to include their own thoughts into the interpretation.

Where can you admire Rosemarie Trockel's works?

Trockel's works are exhibited in the MMK Frankfurt by June 2023. In addition, works by the artist can be seen in the following public collections : Kunstmuseum Basel, Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, EVN Collection in Maria Enzersdorf.

Buy works by Rosemarie Trockel

The prices for your works are just as wide as dry. In 2014 in the London auction house Sotheby’s one of drying knitting pictures was auctioned at a price of a whopping $ 4,981,000. Before the auction, the artwork was estimated at $ 1.5 to $ 2 million.

But not all prices move in the seven-digit range: most of Trockel's works cost $ 1,000 to $ 5,000.

Contemporary artists like Rosemarie Trockel are a rarity. has made contemporary art comprises 40 years Trockel's works hit the mark today as they did years ago - with a bold look for social difficulties before they come into public awareness.

Joachim Rodriguez y Romero

Owner and managing director of Kunstplaza . Publicist, editor and passionate blogger in the field of art, design and creativity since 2011. Successful conclusion in web design as part of a university degree (2008). Further development of creativity techniques through courses in free drawing, expression painting and theatre/acting. Profound knowledge of the art market through many years of journalistic research and numerous collaborations with actors/institutions from art and culture.

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