curated by Petra Reichensperger

The extent to which painting and sculpture have mutually influenced each other in the very real tension between imago and realem is now no longer a novum. However, it is the influence of the second dimension on the third that is typically emphasized. This is because painting has played a paradigmatic role for the remaining fields of art since at least the 18th century. It was considered the queen of the modern, the role model for the other arts. This image is still flickering in Barnett Newman’s definition of sculpture: “Sculpture is what you bump into when you back up to see a painting”.
The exhibition Untitled, 6 X 2, 2008 thus effectuates a reversal of perspective. It questions the canonical hierarchy of art forms, as well as their effects. The curator Petra Reichensperger has invited six artists who explore the wide field of “expanded painting” in their work. Primarily working on the fringes of painting, the artists Gabriele Basch, Henriette Grahnert, Thilo Heinzmann, Maarten Janssen, Kalin Lindena and Alexander Wolff have each invited an additional artist whose sculptural or spatial position is of significance for his/her own work: Berta Fischer, Thomas Rentmeister, Juliane Solmsdorf, Ton Schuttelaar, Wenzel Hablik and Mandla Reuter. Through the “invitations of the invited” in particular, a situation arises in which the exhibited works mutually relate to one another: One work comments another work, one work looks at other works.
Each artist duo has been given a room of its own in the 800 m2 exhibition building, so that each specific artistic cosmos appears clearly and distinctly. In one space, the outcome is an echo chamber and in another, a counterpoint. The process of expanded invitation and the 6x2 mode permit the artists to develop new forms, combinations and perspectives in tandem. Assuming that the experiment is successful, an “untitled work” results that can be experienced within the field of tension between the two initial artistic positions. “Untitled” adds a meta-level to the exhibited works which identifies the title as the space-holder for a blank space and, precisely for this reason, calls for commentary. May the process of becoming never cease.