Exhibition Learning Notes: ‘Isa Genzken. Wasserspeier and Angels’

How does she make her work?
Questions around how the human body interacts in and around spaces has occupied Genzken’s artistic practice for over 40 years. These explorations have predominantly taken the form of sculpture, but she also works across a diverse range of media including collage, works on paper and oil, photography, film, assemblage and installation. Genzken began creating work in the 1970s inspired by minimalism and constructivism. She utilized existing materials and everyday objects along with plaster and cement to create artwork that often held very personal views and sentiments about aspects of the world around her. And just as the world constantly changes, Genzken has also been keen that her working practice and methods never appear to become static and predictable.

What are her sources of subject matter?
Urban spaces, buildings (historic and contemporary) and human interaction with such environments are important reference points for Genzken’s practice. New York City and its skyscrapers has been a life-long source of inspiration for the artist as can be seen in her three-volume collage book ‘I Love New York, Crazy City’ (1995 – 1996). The energy of cities in general is a running theme in her output as is evident from the appearance of columns and vertical structures in her work. The artist also draws on contemporary events as sources of subject matter such as the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

What are the major themes within the exhibition?

Duality between the earth and heaven
A recurring theme throughout the artist’s career, with earthly concerns usually represented by materials associated with engineering and heaviness, such as electric cables, aluminium panels and trolleys. In contrast the sky or heavenly domain is symbolised by blue sheets, bright lamps and umbrellas.

Contrasts of strength and vulnerability
The grandeur and strength of architecture as expressed in the columns and pedestals within the installation is contrasted against a more fragile human spirit and vulnerable sense of nature through the inclusion of elements such as the sacrificial lamb, twigs and broken umbrellas.

Art in dialogue with the audience
Another recurring theme for Genzken is the ability of art to make the spectator reconsider their relationship to space and scale within an exhibition or urban environment. The choice of materials within this installation prompts the audience to walk around it, see themselves reflected within the shiny surfaces and be generally aware that the artist is welcoming their bodies as a component of this mixed media sculpture.

What other artists does her work relate to?

Tilman Riemenschneider (1460 – 1531) was a German sculptor working in medieval Europe during a period that art history terms the Late Gothic. He excelled in working in
wood and stone.

Lawrence Weiner (1942 – 2021) was an American artist and one of the leading figures of conceptual art in the 1960s and 1970s. He was an important advocate of the role that art and installation could play in altering physical spaces for audiences. Bruce Nauman (b.1941) is an American artist whose multidisciplinary practice incorporates sculpture, neon, photography, video and performance.

Gerhard Richter (b.1932) a German visual artist and renowned for not following singular approaches to painting. He is the ex-husband of Genzken.

Phyllida Barlow (1944 – 2023) created large-scale yet anti-monumental sculptures from inexpensive, low-grade materials such as cardboard, fabric, plywood, polystyrene, scrim, plaster and cement. Her invented forms stretch the limits of mass, volume and height
and challenge the audience into a new relationship with the sculptural object and gallery environment.

Nairy Baghramian (b.1971) creates work that encompasses sculpture, installation, photography and drawing. Her practice is experimental in its use of multiple techniques, materials and forms that regularly addresses architectural, social and political issues.

Glossary

Aesthetics
A philosophical set of ideas or assumptions on what beauty might be and how it can
be perceived.

Assemblage art
The incorporation of everyday, pre-existing objects by artists into sculptural works or installations.

Constructivism
An art movement that originated in Russia in the early 20th Century that took inspiration from industrial design, production and urban landscapes.

Gargoyles
Stone carved creatures of a fantastical and grotesque appearance often incorporated into medieval church architecture.

Installation
Installation art, also called ‘environments’ emerged as an immersive art form in the mid-20th Century. This type of art invites the public to step into spaces that are completely taken over by the artist’s creation and thereby ensure a more rounded interaction between viewer and art form.

Late Gothic
A style of medieval art that was dominant in Europe from the 12th – 15th Centuries. Artists took inspiration from religious sources with Gothic art mostly evident through the architecture and sculpture of cathedrals and religious sites.

Minimalism
An art movement of the 1960s and 1970s that originated in New York City which pared art making back to the essence of the object itself, largely excluding any external reference points or subjectivity.

Punk culture
A youth and countercultural movement of the late 1970s that strove for individual freedoms, a rejection of authoritarian and corporate control and embraced a distinctive style via art, music, and self-image.

Discussion questions

• Audience interaction and self-awareness of space is an important topic for the artist and this installation. How does Genzken instigate an interaction with the spectator through her placement of elements and use of materials in this work?

• Genzken’s creations are often connected or instigated by events or situations taking place in the world around her. Think about a recent national or international event that has left an impact in your memory. How would you represent this as an installation art piece and what materials would you use?

• A punk counterculture and DIY ethos can be seen to run through Genzken’s career which has always made her stand out from the crowd. What artists today do you admire that have such a similar spirit of independence and experimentation?

• Look for the items listed below within the installation. What do you feel they add to the nature of the artwork, and what do you think they might mean or represent for the artist?

• A flatiron and a clock
• Lambs and quail eggs
• Alligator heads and a toy chicken with a veil
• Torn umbrellas and twigs
• Oversize wine glasses and a bird of prey
• Toy figures arranged as in a model for a filmset

Supplementary research

• About Isa Genzken

• This is Isa Genzken/MoMA