Curator:
Pati Hertling (born Berlin, Germany; lives and works in New York, USA).
Description:
Group exhibition curated by Pati Hertling on view at the Chelsea Art Museum, New York from April 17-June 13, 2009.
Featuring: modern modern includes: Amelie von Wulffen, Cecily Brown, Jonas Lipps, Elizabeth Peyton, Birgit Megerle, Dirk Bell, Charline von Heyl, Andro Wekua, Jutta Koether, Peter Kisur, Susanne Winterling, Kitty Kraus, Sergej Jensen, Peter Peri, Hayley Tompkins, Scott Olson, Gregor Hylla, Kerstin Brätsch, Silke Otto-Knapp, Nick Mauss, Paulina Olowska, Simone Gilges, Karl Holmqvist, Isa Genzken, Tobias Buche, Nina Rhode, Michaela Meise, Juliane Solmsdorf, Reto Pulfer, Falke Pisano, Nikolas Gambaroff, Ken Okiishi, John Giorno and The Honey Suckle Company.
“In line with its commitment to question and rethink traditional notions in art practice and presentation, The Chelsea Art Museum, Home of the Miotte Foundation, is presenting ‘modern modern’, a group exhibition curated by Pati Hertling featuring works by 34 contemporary artists.’modern modern’ points to an emotional and aesthetic sensibility among the artists in the show, who are living and working mostly between Berlin and New York. Despite strong modernist references, stylistic classifications are of no importance in this show. The works are refreshingly unconcerned with the distinctions between ‘figuration’, ‘abstraction’ and the ‘conceptual’ and find another way to communicate their ideas and feelings about their subjects and the world around them. With colors dirty and drab, the absence of evident political commentary or shocking visuals, and an accent on the melancholic, the show is also reflection of the times we are living in right now. ‘modern modern’ creates an interesting dialogue between the Chelsea Art Museum’s permanent abstract art collection and the elements of abstraction within the artworks in the show.”
—Press release, “modern modern, Chelsea Art Museum,” Mutual Art website.
“The pieces featured in the group exhibition at the Chelsea Art Museum, titled ‘modern modern’—by 34 artists, mostly based in New York and Berlin—harkened back to when modern truly was new. Employing a romantic, Back to the Future
-ism, Hertling placed the focus on intuition and immediacy in the works she chose and bypassed the neurotic emphasis on process that often follows the aesthetics of modernism.”
—Ana Scantopino, “The Next Irascibles: Pati Hertling,” Paper Mag, November 2, 2009.
