Aluminiumrahmen, 82 x 82 cm
Serial structures, serial procedures
September 6, 2015 – November 8, 2015
In the event of the 50th jubilee of the Ruhr University Bochum, the exhibition focuses its view on a development in recent art, specifically of the 1960s – the time of the origin of the RUB – where it has experienced a crucial intensification. With constantly new characteristics and astonishing variety, it is still relevant up to today: Serial structures have become a significant and relevant issue. At the same time they led social issues; not least they have also impacted the areal organisation, as seen for example in the architecture of the Ruhr University.
In classical modern art from Monet to Jawlensky, series of painterly images on specific motives became a common artistic procedure. The art after 1945 aimed firstly the interest on serial structures within the picture. Serial structures as sequences or patterns of (nearly) equal elements can be understood as critical counter models to hierarchic organizational forms (like the traditional composition). Additionally, formal issues often connect with social-political aspirations: Serialism and all-over stand for a tendential transgressive balance between individual and general, whereas every single element seems coequal. This coequality enables to notice minor changes intensely.These alleged simple structures initiate an astonishing variety of individual experiences. Series and methods of repetitions direct the attention at a temporal one-by-one, a regular sequence of actions which consequently appear equal or similar, without being compelled to a superior target.
The exhibition comments on the complex potential of serialism in its presentation and constellation or artistic formulations.
It displays works by Josef Albers, Arman, Bernhard Aubertin, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Hanne Darboven, Ad Dekkers, Peter Dreher, Thomas Florschuetz, Norbert Frensch, Kuno Gonschior, Lee Ufan, Maik + Dirk Löbbert, Konrad Lueg, Adolf Luther, M+M, François Morellet, Mario Nigro, Roman Opalka, Katinka Pilscheur, Alfredo Alvarez Plágaro, Klaus Rinke, Peter Roehr, Jan J. Schoonhoven, Richard Serra, Leon Polk Smith, Günther Uecker, Claude Viallat, Andy Warhol and Jan Wenzel.
The accompanying catalogue (soft-cover, 176 pages, 95 images) includes an introduction by Elke Bippus and essays by students on artists and works. In the summer of 2015 the Institute of Art History at the Ruhr University Bochum offered a course on the exhibiton subject, where students could - under the management of Jun.-Prof. Dr. Annette Urban - also contribute catalogue essays. All written texts are in German.