Willem de Rooij (*1969), who has been a professor at the Städelschule in Frankfurt since 2006, is one of the most influential artists of his generation. De Rooij's works revolve around questions of representation and meaning, often referencing works by other artists or artifacts from historical and anthropological collections.
For his exhibition at MMK 2, he unites three existing groups of works for the first time. When viewed together, the result is a new and in-depth insight into the work of this important Dutch artist. The three groups of works presented in the exhibition include the large, woven paintings "weavings" (since 2009), the 18 large-format panels "Index" (2003) and the sportswear collection produced under the label "Fong Leng".
The "weavings" series of works consists of textile paintings produced in various sizes, formats and color combinations. Willem de Rooij has chosen the structural polarity of "warp and weft" as a starting point for an investigation of abstract concepts such as opposition, contrast, transition, and nuance.
For the work "Index: Riots, Protest, Mourning and Commemoration," de Rooij assembles newspaper clippings from the public events around the world mentioned in the work's title. In doing so, he initially suggests that viewers can gain a more accurate insight into the representation of political struggles and confrontations. However, the cut-outs are deprived of their captions, and on closer inspection the hope of an order to the examples presented dissipates. An objective order of the images is thus critically questioned and relativized.
The group of works "Fong Leng" negotiates corresponding concepts that de Rooij has dealt with using the example of his extensive collection of sportswear by the Chinese-Dutch fashion designer Fong Leng.
Text source and more information about the event at:
http://mmk-frankfurt.de/de/ausstellungen/ausstellung-details/article/willem_de_rooij/?no_cache=1&cHash=71d348b7ba32cc679e83c3fd90f0978d
