With such a concentration, variety and quality of works of Minimal Art as can be found in the collection of the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, hardly any other museum in Germany can boast. The exhibition "Primary Structures" is the first comprehensive show to present the masterpieces of this collection focus.
Through the purchase of Karl Ströher's former collection by the City of Frankfurt in 1981, the MMK owns a unique collection of works by US Minimalist artists of the 1960s, including extensive groups of works by Carl Andre, Walter De Maria, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd and Fred Sandback. In addition, the collection acquired in 2006 by the former gallery owner and collector Rolf Ricke also includes outstanding works of Postminimalism in the MMK's holdings.
The representatives of the new art movement Minimal Art, which developed in the USA in the early 1960s, strove for objectivity, logic and depersonalization in their works. They reduced their works to simple, clear and mostly geometric basic structures, so-called "Primary Structures". In addition to this basic principle of Minimal Art, the title of the exhibition at MMK 2 also refers to the legendary and, in terms of its significance, groundbreaking exhibition of the same name at the Jewish Museum in New York in 1966. The key work Cage by Walter De Maria from 1965 from the MMK collection was already on show at the time in this exhibition in New York, which from today's perspective is groundbreaking.
50 years after this first survey show on Minimalism, the MMK is also taking a look at this historical art movement from the perspective of the present and the perspectives of the artists in the museum's collection who stand in this tradition and reflect on it critically. These include Jo Baer, Bruce Nauman, Robert Barry, Robert Mangold, Charlotte Posenenske, Peter Roehr, Lewis Stein and William Forsythe, but above all the representatives of the younger generations of artists such as Teresa Margolles, Michael Beutler, Benedikte Bjerre, Ceal Floyer, Jonas Weichsel, Sarah Morris or Santiago Sierra. The exhibition explores the international impact of the influential artistic movement of Minimal Art from the 1960s to our immediate present.
The collection presentation kicks off with the reconstruction of two historical exhibition situations in Heiner Friedrich's former gallery in Munich in 1968 with Carl Andre's floor sculpture "22 Steel Row" and Dan Flavin's light-space installation "Two primary series and one secondary".
Artists in the exhibition: Carl Andre, Richard Artschwager, Jo Baer, Robert Barry, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Michael Beutler, Benedikte Bjerre, Alighiero Boetti, Bill Bollinger, George Brecht, Marcel Broodthaers, Vija Celmins, Hanne Darboven, Walter De Maria, Dan Flavin, Ceal Floyer, William Forsythe, Günther Förg, Isa Genzken, Hermann Goepfert, Jeppe Hein, Bethan Huws, Donald Judd, On Kawara, Ellsworth Kelly, Joseph Kosuth, Gary Kuehn, Barry La Va, Robert Mangold, Anthony McCall, Teresa Margolles, Sarah Morris, Bruce Nauman, Kenneth C. Noland, Blinky Palermo, Steven Parrino, Angelika Platen, Charlotte Posenenske, Timm Rautert, Gerhard Richter, Peter Roehr, Ulrich Rückriem, Robert Ryman, Fred Sandback, Richard Serra, Paul Sharits, Santiago Sierra, Andreas Slominski, Lewis Stein, Heide Stolz, Günter Umberg, Franz-Erhardt Walther, Jonas Weichsel, and Lawrence Weiner.
Source and further information: http://mmk-frankfurt.de/de/ausstellungen/ausstellung-details/article/primary_structures_meisterwerke_der_minimal_art/?no_cache=1&cHash=73aede3b82080eb9636209f8cdc1f700
