Isa Genzken: A remarkable history of outstanding exhibitions

Among the media reports that are more concerned with attracting public attention than with recognizing good information, one tendency often stands out (or almost always?) in the reporting on Isa Genzken : that Isa Genzken owes part of her career to her famous husband.

It is not so, and you will never again be in the position of even suspecting such nonsense if you know the following facts from Isa Genzken's exhibition history:

Isa Genzken had her first solo exhibition Isa Genzken. Ellipse and Light Parallelogram” ran from January 10–22, 1976 at the Konrad Fischer Gallery in Düsseldorf.

Konrad Fischer was one of the then not uncommon “enfant terribles” of modern art; he opened his gallery in 1967 in the lead-up to the 1968 movement, aiming to contribute to the radical upheaval of the traditional art establishment in West Germany. He succeeded in this endeavor. The son of a Mannesmann director, he had already established enough contacts during his art studies (at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, of course, but in the early 1960s) to develop his Old Town gallery, created by glazing a gateway, into one of the world's most influential galleries.

Fischer represented important artists, often from their first public appearance (in Germany), minimalists and conceptual artists such as Carl Andre and Joseph Beuys, Hanne Darboven and Hamish Fulton, Sol LeWitt and Richard Long, Bruce Nauman , Markus Oehlen, Blinky Palermo , Lawrence Weiner and others.

The Konrad Fischer Gallery is considered historically significant, primarily because it was the first gallery to exhibit works by legendary American artists in Germany. Furthermore, the gallery is credited with playing a crucial role in establishing Düsseldorf as an internationally recognized center for contemporary art.

Genzken's solo exhibitions continued in a similar style: May 20 to June 18, 1978 “Isa Genzken” at the Kabinett für aktuelle Kunst , Bremerhaven.

The Cabinet was founded in 1967 by Jürgen Wesseler ; the surveying engineer with a nose for modern art turned a shop window room on the ground floor of the Kunsthalle Bremerhaven into a small but influential exhibition space.

Numerous important solo exhibitions and premieres took place there, for example by and with Carl Andre, Bernd and Hilla Becher , Hanne Darboven, On Kawara, Blinky Palermo, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter and Lawrence Weiner. Isa Genzken showed three of her ellipsoids in her first solo exhibition at this institution.

In 1979, “Sculptures, Drawings, Photographs” by Isa Genzken could be viewed at the Haus Lange / Haus Esters Museum in Krefeld; in 1981, this exhibition was shown as part of the exhibition associated with the Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Scholarship at the Mathildenhöhe Institute in Darmstadt.

The sculptures were ellipsoids and hyperbolos, the photographs were hi-fi and ear photographs, and the drawings were computer drawings (which some artists presented as completely new almost 40 years later).

With exhibitions in France, the Venice Biennale, Documenta 7 (with four of Genzken's ellipsoids), artistic excursions to Bulgaria and New York, and the installation of "ABC" (Genzken's first site-specific outdoor sculpture) at the Skulptur Projekte Münster, the years 1980 to 1986/spring 1987 passed by in a busy period; by 1987, Genzken had spent half of her married life behind her.

And she had the desire and time for a solo exhibition. Gallerist Daniel Buchholz in the desired style by renting a shop belonging to MUSIX GmbH in Cologne through the Daniel Buchholz Gallery, so that Isa Genzken could exhibit her “World Receivers” (which had since evolved from an initial readymade into a series of small concrete sculptures, mo.ma/2m5ai3O) in a suitable setting – the shop window of a local music store.

This first exhibition with Daniel Buchholz, who had opened his eponymous gallery in Cologne in 1986, was not to be the last. Buchholz became Genzken's principal gallerist and represents her worldwide to this day. With this, Genzken had once again turned to a gallerist with a great future; a remarkable number of now world-leading artists exhibited early on, or even for the very first time, in Germany at Galerie Buchholz: John M. Armleder, Chris Burden, Maurizio Cattelan, Simon Denny, Cerith Wyn Evans, the Canadian artists' group General Idea, Dominique Gonzales-Foerster, Carsten Höller, Mike Kelley , Mark Leckey, Olivier Mosset, Henrik Olesen, Dieter Roth , Blinky Palermo , Philippe Parreno, Sigmar Polke , Frances Stark, Wolfgang Tillmans , and Danh Vo.

Today the gallery has exhibition spaces at key locations in Cologne, Berlin and New York City and represents over 40 contemporary artists from around the world.

In 1988, the exhibition “Isa Genzken” followed at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn , marking Genzken’s first museum tour; the exhibition, under the name “Isa Genzken: Sculptures 1978–1989”, then traveled to the Kunstmuseum Winterthur in Switzerland (from January 1989) and to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Rotterdam (from April 1989).

Introduction to ISA GENZKEN. WORKS FROM 1973 – 1983 by curator Søren Grammel

In 1989, Isa Genzken also exhibited at the Goethe-Institut in Rotterdam , and in 1990 at the Galerie Greta Meert in Brussels. In 1992, Genzken's work was again shown at the Galerie Daniel Buchholz in Cologne; the Renaissance Society in Chicago also presented "Everyone Needs at Least One Window," and the exhibition subsequently traveled to the Portikus in Frankfurt am Main (1992), the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels (1993), and the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich (1993).

“MetLife” was shown at the Generali Foundation in Vienna , followed by “Isa Genzken” at the Corvi-Mora Gallery in London in 1997 and at the INIT Art Hall in Berlin in 1998. The exhibitions “Isa Genzken: You Are My Happiness” at the Braunschweig Art Association and “Isa Genzken – Vacation” at the Frankfurt Art Association Frankfurt am Main followed in 2000.

For her appearances in group exhibitions, Isa Genzken has primarily chosen the very best art exhibition venues: After several exhibitions in West Germany, Isa Genzken was featured in the exhibition “Art Allemagne Aujourd 'hui” at the Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris , and in 1982 she was invited to documenta in Kassel for the first time.

At this documenta 7, ellipsoids and hyperbolic sculptures. Also in 1982, Isa Genzken's art was shown 40th Venice Biennale

In 1983, she exhibited her works at the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven, the Centrum Beeldende Kunst Rotterdam, and several times in Germany. The years up to 1990 followed a similar pattern, with highlights at the MUMOK Vienna (1985, “Art with a Mind of Its Own”), Bulgaria (1986, “They Do What They Want. Young Rhenish Art”, Union of Bulgarian Artists, Sofia), the Skulptur Projekte Münster 1987, New York (1987, Juxtapositions: Contemporary Sculpture from England and Germany, PS1 Institute for Art and Urban Resources, now MoMA PS1), Sydney (1988, 7th Biennale of Sydney), and Montreal (1990, Broken Music, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal).

In 1991, Genzken's art was exhibited in Cologne and Düsseldorf, in 1992 at documenta 9 in Kassel (concrete and epoxy resin sculptures), in 1993 at the 45th Venice Biennale ("Venice", a large epoxy sculpture in two parts, created specifically for the exhibition), in 1994 in London and Vienna, in 1995 in Tampere, FL + Houston, TX USA, Dunkerque France and again in Vienna.

In 1996, Genzken's work was featured in the exhibition "Places and Place Signs" at the Heilbronn Municipal Museums. In 1997, her works traveled to Vienna and Mürzzuschlag in Austria, to the Skulptur Projekte Münster, and to New York and Warsaw. In 1998, the exhibition tour went from Hamburg to Seoul and Hong Kong and back to Hamburg. In 1999, it traveled via Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, and Vienna to Mönchengladbach and Arnhem in the Netherlands. In 2000, Rotterdam, the Cologne Sculpture Park , the K & S Gallery in Berlin , the Kunsthalle Bremen , the ZKM Karlsruhe , and Mönchengladbach again ("Exchange Rate 1995-2000," Abteiberg Municipal Museum) were on the exhibition route.

Around 20 solo exhibitions and over 60 group exhibitions by the year 2000 represent a remarkable exhibition career for the period before the turn of the millennium. This is especially true for a female artist known for not seizing every opportunity, whether appropriate or not, to publicly present her artwork.

It must also be taken into account that the collections of exhibition data up to the turn of the millennium are quite incomplete; leading world art critics often fail to list several of Isa Genzken's exhibitions in their overview of her exhibition history (and here, too, no guarantee can be given that the author was actually able to research all of Isa Genzken's exhibitions up to the turn of the millennium).

In any case, Isa Genzken had already exhibited a great deal by the year 2000; and after that, the art world became much more global in leaps and bounds, so things really took off: Even before her 70th birthday in the new millennium, Isa Genzken had already achieved almost 60 solo exhibitions and 350 group exhibitions (Genzken's exhibitions after the turn of the millennium have only been briefly touched upon here, so that there is "plenty of material" left for individual discovery).

After Isa Genzken's works were featured in almost every major art exhibition of the new millennium, more factual articles about her work and career have also become increasingly common in the traditional press. However, ludicrous statements like the sentence "She was a master student of Gerhard Richter and his wife for more than 20 years" ; this concluding sentence of an article about the retrospective at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne (2009) is as false as it is inaccurate, implying protection from Richter.

also boasts a considerable list of awards and accolades

• 1977: Travel grant from the Düsseldorf Art Academy to the United States
• 1978 – 1980: Karl Schmidt-Rottluff scholarship
• 1980: Berlin Art Prize of the Academy of Arts Berlin.
• 2002: Wolfgang Hahn Prize, Museum Ludwig, Cologne
• 2004: International Art Prize of the Cultural Foundation of the Munich Municipal Savings Bank
• 2007: “Most important living artist” in the annual “artist ranking” of the art magazine Monopol
• 2008: Yang Hyun Prize from the Yang Hyun Foundation, Seoul
• 2013: On the occasion of the retrospective of her works at the MoMA in New York, the magazine “Spiegel” counts Genzken among the “most important artists of the past 30 years”
• 2017: Isa Genzken is awarded the Goslar Kaiserring

In 2018, to mark the artist's 70th birthday, there will certainly be enough exhibitions featuring Isa Genzken's art . Anyone who misses them all can view one of the numerous Genzken works in public spaces (in addition to those already mentioned, for example, the "X" in Munich's Arnulfstrasse, the sculpture "Full Moon" which moved from Münster to Gnadendorf/Austria and is now located at the Wenzersdorf castle ruins; there are 23 in total) or the numerous artworks by her that are presented in public collections :

• Belgium: Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens (MDD), Deurle
• Denmark: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk
• Germany: H2 Center for Contemporary Art in the Glass Palace Augsburg; Frieder Burda Museum Baden-Baden; Hoffmann Collection Berlin; Museum Ludwig Cologne; MMK Frankfurt/Main; Lenbachhaus Municipal Gallery & Kunstbau Munich; Abteiberg Municipal Museum Mönchengladbach; Grässlin Art Space St. Georgen
• France: FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais Dunkerque; Louis Vuitton Paris Foundation
• Italy: MUSEION Bolzano; Fondazione Morra Naples
• Japan: 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa
• Netherlands: Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
• Austria: Generali Foundation Vienna; Museum of Modern Art Salzburg
• USA: Carnegie Museum of Art Pittsburgh, PA; The Warehouse Dallas, TX; MOCA Grand Avenue Los Angeles, CA; MoMA New York City, NY; Kemper Art Museum Saint Louis, MO; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Washington, DC;
• United Kingdom: The Saatchi Gallery London

Tour: Isa Genzken. Here and Now

With two parallel exhibitions on Isa Genzken (*1948), Here and Now and Works from 1973 to 1983, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen offers a special insight into the work of one of the world's most important contemporary artists. The focus is on two phases of her work from her five-decade-long career.

The main floor features recent works from the last decade. Simultaneously, the basement of the K21 focuses on her visionary early work, which has never before been presented in such a comprehensive manner. This compelling juxtaposition highlights developments within her oeuvre as well as Isa Genzken's worldview.