Colours in a Square
Works from the Marli Hoppe-Ritter Collection
Museum Ritter, Waldenbuch
14 May - 17 September 2023
This exhibition focuses on the topic of colour and the associated ways in which colours and elementary forms interact. On display are around 60 geometric abstract paintings, visual objects, and sculptures from the 1960s to the present day. They have been made by artists from 10 different European countries.
With works by Yaacov Agam, Kirstin Arndt, Werner Bauer, Max Bill, Bob Bonies, Hellmut Bruch, Geneviève Claisse, Daniel de Spirt, Rita Ernst, Hans Jörg Glattfelder, Ingo Glass, Camille Graeser, Gottfried Honegger, Imi Knoebel, Matti Kujasalo, Jim Lambie, Camill Leberer, Thomas Lenk, Richard Paul Lohse, Dóra Maurer, Vera Molnar, François Morellet, Aurélie Nemours, Miriam Prantl, Nelly Rudin, Diet Sayler, Reiner Seliger, Anton Stankowski, Klaus Staudt, Günther Uecker, Grazia Varisco, Peter Weber, Martin Willing, Shizuko Yoshikawa, Beat Zoderer.
Colour is one of the foremost means of artistic expression. And as is clearly demonstrated by the works presented here from the collection, this is especially true of non-representational art, in which colour is usually free of any symbolic value and stands entirely for itself.
But does the colour concept behind constructive-concrete works strictly obey its own intrinsic logic, as might be expected from art of this kind? Or are colours also sometimes employed in the broad field of geometric abstraction in a spontaneous, intuitive manner that ignores predefined rules?
The exhibition shows that both are possible. In addition to works in which colours and forms interact on a rational basis, others are on view that playfully break with the strict ideals of concrete systems of order, and that combine a grammar of geometric forms with idiosyncratic colour experiments. Some paintings above all impress the beholder by strong colour contrasts that create a visual sense of vibration in the picture surface. Others are radically monochrome - without any hint of monotony. And last but not least, the exhibits also include works made in part from glass or acrylic glass, which first unfold the true radiance of their colours in and through the ambient light.
A variant of the exhibition Colours in a Square has been on view at the Fondazione Marcello Morandini in Varese (IT) until 16 April 2023.
Sammlung Marli Hoppe-Ritter
Alfred Ritter Strasse 27, 71111 Waldenbuch
