Exhibition
The exhibition took place from 15 November 2018 to 22 May 2019.
From 15 November 2018 to 22 May 2019, the VERBUND COLLECTION, Vienna, presented a solo exhibition of the American artist Louise Lawler in the Vertical Gallery.
Since it was founded in 2004, the VERBUND COLLECTION has regularly acquired works by Louise Lawler, of which it now owns twenty-seven. In the eight-storey Vertical Gallery, these works are juxtaposed with so-called traced wall works consisting of self-adhesive black and white films. Their size is adapted by the artist to the respective spatial situation and to the wall on which they will be later be placed. Traced wall works are graphic realisations of previous photographs, which focus on the lines and to that extent appear as a simplification of the original subject.
Curator:
Curated by Gabriele Schor, founding director of the VERBUND COLLECTION, Vienna,
Exhibition team
Theresa Dann – curatorial assistant VERBUND COLLECTION, Vienna
Julia Hürner – curatorial assistant of the VERBUND COLLECTION, Vienna
Kenneth Pietrobono, assistant to Louise Lawler, New York
Louise Lawler, a significant conceptual artist, critically reflects on the art world and the role of artworks within the context of museums and galleries. With her focus on photography and installations, she questions the perception of art and its value within the art market. Lawler's works invite viewers to contemplate the boundaries and contexts of art, encouraging fresh perspectives on the art world.
The exhibition took place from 15 November 2018 to 22 May 2019.
published by Gabriele Schor
Softcover: 136 pages
Publisher: Buchhandlung Walther König
Edition: 2018
Languages: German and English
ISBN: 978-3-96098-425-2
Louise Lawler (born in 1947 in New York) is an important American artist. She belongs to the so-called Pictures Generation, which has critically questioned the function of the mass media with the medium of photography since the beginning of the 1980s. An extensive show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2017 looked back over her 40 years of creativity. The VERBUND COLLECTION in Vienna is now the owner of the biggest Lawler collection; since it was established in 2004, it has acquired twenty-seven works by the artist. Now in 2018, the first Louise Lawler exhibition in Vienna is being held on the eight floors of the Vertical Gallery. The show fits into one of the two focal points of the collection, namely the ‘perception of spaces and places’; alongside the other focus of the ‘Feminist Avant-Garde’, the title SHE’S HERE refers cheekily to this focus.
Louise Lawler’s extraordinary photographs make it clear that our perception of an artwork is always influenced by its immediate surroundings. Depending on whether the artwork is located in a gallery, museum, vault, auction house or in the private rooms of collectors, its meaning, presence, effect and statement changes. Lawler never changes the situation in which she photographs artworks. The high-gloss surfaces of her photographs convey the impression of a painting.
The publication SELECTED AND RELATED. Works by Louise Lawler from the VERBUND COLLECTION, Vienna & Others brings together for the first time all twenty-seven works of the VERBUND COLLECTION and shows them alongside related photographs selected by the artist. It appears in a German and an English edition by the publisher Buchhandlung Walther König.
Photos: © Gregor Titze, Vienna