Minimalism and After IV

The Minimalism and After exhibition series was conceived in 2002, as Minimalism is one of the key areas in the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection’s long-term purchasing strategy. We now see that we anticipated important exhibition trends. Several major museum shows, from Los Angeles to Houston, New York, London and Wolfsburg, were recently devoted to Minimalism and Geometrical Abstraction as an important phenomenon in Europe and the USA around 1960. Many of the names we come across here have featured in the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection’s exhibitions in Berlin, Karlsruhe, Detroit and Pretoria.

The contemporary return to the history of effect, and the recalling of many artists who have wrongly been forgotten today, is relevant from our point of view, in that a continuous discussion of the aesthetic, political and formal foundations of Minimalism as a driving force behind contemporary art can be heard today.

Minimalism and After IV will present key positions in Minimalism and examine how these tendencies originating in Europe and the USA have been received and developed in the context of contemporary art. The focus this time is on historical and contemporary positions from Great Britain and USA: About 30 new acquisitions by 21 artists will be on show, showing early abstract-minimalist artists like Michael Heizer (USA), Jeremy Moon (GB), Michael Kidner (GB) or Marcia Hafif (USA) alongside recent approaches by artists like Jim Lambie (GB), Ian Davenport (GB) and Tom Sachs (USA). A thematic concentration will show minimalist-conceptual approaches to questions of architecture / space, with sculptures by Julian Opie (GB) and Mathias Goeritz (D/MEX) as well as photographs by Dan Graham (USA), Santiago Sierra (E) and Attila Csörgö (H).