SEEING FORMS

With SEEING FORMS, the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection focuses on a central collecting theme: the artistic exploration of forms within the tension of abstraction. Since its founding in 1977, the corporate collection has focused on abstract-geometric visual concepts. It ranges from Bauhaus and De Stijl, through Hard Edge, Minimal and Concept Art, to current international positions that question and further develop the non-representational and geometric pictorial tradition.

In the works presented here, the artists explore the boundaries of abstract seeing. They utilize moving images and object-based works in the media of painting, drawing, and sculpture. For example, Absalon and Julian Opie examine geometric forms in relation to the human body. Heimo Zobernig and Katja Davar reference the TV monitor test pattern in their use of color and form, arriving at very different results. Salomé Chatriot and Yuyan Wang, in turn, link ideas of fluid forms with current discourses on new technologies, visual overstimulation, and altered corporeality.