October 2001/Geometrical Affairs

The Mercedes-Benz Art Collection focuses on geometrical and abstract concepts in 20th century art, and shows how these ideas are developing on the contemporary art scene world-wide.

The Geometrical Affairs exhibition includes selected works spanning six decades, starting with classical pictures by artists like Josef Albers or Adolf Fleischmann and ending up with “Sculptural Situations” by the young Australian artist Gail Hastings. It also juxtaposes essentially black-and-white serial painting and object art with pictorial ensembles ablaze with color and vitality. This selection of works shows that conceptual, minimalist and constructive questions can interact in very exciting ways, and that strong ideologies can lose some of their force when faced with an opposite view stated in visual form.