Elementarteile | Elementary Parts

With ELEMENTARY PARTS the Sprengel Museum Hannover celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the donation by Bernhard and Margrit Sprengel as well as the fortieth anniversary of the museum. The exhibition and collection catalogue ELEMENTARY PARTS put questions to art that are as simple as they are obvious, and that nevertheless prove absolutely fundamental: what is art? What, in fact, are works of art made of, which materials are used? Which formal languages do they employ? To which realities do they refer, between figuration, abstraction and virtual worlds? What is art about, what stories does it tell, how does it reflect history? The impressive spectrum of fundamental possibilities of expression unfolds in the light of ten shrewdly chosen thematic areas, among them colour, material, form/shape, realities, history and stories, natural habitats and living environments, grand emotions and, finally, faces. In all, more than 150 works are presented, ranging from Max Beckmann, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger and Paul Klee by way of Louise Bourgeois, Sean Scully, Bruce Nauman, Niki de Saint Phalle and Gerhard Richter to Marlene Dumas, Andrea Fraser, Julian Charrière, Julius von Bismarck, Christoph Girardet, and Julia Schmid.

Exhibition:
Sprengel Museum, since 13th April 2019