Since the late 1970s, Astrid Klein has been active as a standard-bearer in Europe for “the Pictures Generation” in America, which is said to have played an important role in postmodernism. Using montage and likening techniques that borrow from the grammar of the film language, Klein’s works attempt to expose the problems hidden behind the relationship between image and text across paintings, collages, photographs and installations. In recent years, they have received new attention. The strong influence of French Nouvelle Vague films, the New Wave movement in film and art in France and popular culture is clearly reflected in her work, but at the same time, it can be said that her works also demonstrate a fresh critical spirit, with pressing contemporary issues such as the economy, violence, life and death, social and gender roles.

This exhibition will feature 9 works from her representative series.
In her series of white paintings, created between 1988 and 1993, she explores the boundaries with the concept of “presenting the unpresentable.” Drawing inspiration from the work of follow artists such as Agnes Martin, Robert Ryman and Piero Manzoni, she uses alabaster and zinc white to blend textures into her “white on white” painting, creating a painterly effect on canvas. On the other hand, the fragments of text and language hidden beneath the white paint quietly assert that the awareness of social issues lying behind the images which she has consistently pursued continues here as well.

The large format works of the 1980 series Broken Heart use excerpts of text from Arno Schmidt’s seminal work Zettels Traum (1970) in relation to the representation of women in cinema and photonovels from the 60s and 70s. The latter were affected by a voyeuristic, masculine perspective along with this the fetishisation of the female form. In the collages, Astrid Klein links textual and pictorial material on a visual level that not necessarily share the same semantic level. This creates a context, in which new meanings are revealed.

Astrid Klein, Born in Cologne in 1951, lives and works in Cologne.
Selected solo exhibitions include Fuhrwerkswaage, Cologne (2024), Odyssey, Cologne (2021), Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2020), Falckenberg Collection at Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburg-Harburg (2018), The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2017), KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2005), Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius (2003), Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2002), Neues Museum/ Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design, Nürnberg (2001), Kunsthalle Bielefeld (1989), travelling exhibition by the Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover; ICA, London; Vienna Secession and Forum Stadtpark, Graz (1989), and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul (1981). Selected group exhibitions include Galeria Studio, Warsaw (2022), Kunstmuseum Stuttgart; Vancouver Art Gallery; and at the Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah (all in 2021); Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen (2020), Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2016), Deichtorhallen Hamburg (2015), Städtische Galerie Karlsruhe (2013), Weserburg Bremen (2011), Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2005). Klein participated in the 14th Sharjah Biennial (2019), Documenta 8 (1987), and the 42nd Venice Biennale (1986).