A Retrospective in the Alte Pinakothek on Arnulf Rainer’s 80th Birthday
MUNICH.- Following the exhibition of sculptures by Cy Twombly in 2006, the Pinakothek der Moderne will pay homage to another contemporary artist with an exhibition in the Alte Pinakothek: Arnulf Rainer. On the occasion of the Austrian painter’s 80th birthday, a concise exhibition will focus on central work groups, several of which have never before been presented. These include a series of paintings that were expressly created after paintings in the Alte Pinakothek, and which thereby quintessentially take up Rainer’s core theme, the dialogue with art.
The creative output of Arnulf Rainer, one of today’s most important contemporary artists, is a main pillar of the Pinakothek der Moderne collection. Since the museum’s opening in 2002, examples of his paintings have continuously been presented in various artist spaces where they become part of a stimulating visual discourse with works by Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Palermo, Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline. The exhibition will deepen and expand upon this aspect of the collection.
Interior view in the Alte Pinakothek © Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen. Photo: Haydar Koyupinar
Since the 1950s, Rainer’s art has evolved within a dialectical opposition between the poles of a rather tranquil, meditative paint application and a physically vigorous expressiveness. His method of unhurried “overpainting”, which often results in more or less monochromatic paintings, forms a contrast to the gestural and corporeal series such as the finger paintings and face farces, which are executed with greater speed.
In two large, characteristically-classical spaces in the Alte Pinakothek, the contrasts embodied in Rainer’s oeuvre will come alive in their interplay and unique radiance. Important groups from the artist’s extensive body of works on paper will be displayed in the adjacent smaller galleries. The conclusion of the presentation will also be a highlight of the exhibition: the last space will be dedicated to Arnulf Rainer’s newest works, which were inspired by paintings by Cranach, Giorgione, Rubens, Velazquez and Boucher, and which hang in the Alte Pinakothek . Visitors will thus have the opportunity to view Rainer’s variations in close proximity to the originals. They constitute an invitation to take a walk through the many centuries of paintings on exhibit in the museum. In this way, the exhibition also provides vital impulses for the further activation of the axial relationship between the Pinakothek museums.
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