MIXED MEDIA (II)

The exhibition series Mixed Media, which presents photography in dialogue with other media, continues in a second show, About Abstraction. The exhibit addresses free forms – lines, surfaces, structures – ranging from the 1920s through the 1980s. From constructivism to minimalism, the spectrum includes drawing, graphic works, and sculptural works that correspond with photographic pieces. The complex formal language of the abstract motifs across various media reflects the development of abstract art in the twentieth century and is manifested in two tendencies: in a constructivist, geometric approach on the one hand and in a lyrical, expressive stance, emphasizing materiality and tactility, on the other. Assembled here by these approaches, the groupings serve to continuously spark new and unusual visual conversations.
In his photo-theoretical explanations in subjektive fotografie 2 (1955), Otto Steinert defined the optical-technical abstractions possible in the medium, beyond the mere representation of reality, as the freest form of “absolute photographic creation.” Moving freely from interwar modernism to Steinert and his cohorts and into the present, the exhibition Mixed Media (II): About Abstraction weaves together a dense net of related artistic perspectives. Transcending eras and media, these views represent a central theme in twentieth-century art.
We would like to thank the artists and their estates, Mehdi Chouakri (Berlin), Derda (Berlin), Galerie Fahnemann (Berlin), Galerie Michael Haas (Berlin/Zurich) and Galerie Leu (München) for their kind collaboration.