Lothar Baumgarten

Lothar Baumgarten: Makunaíma
June 21 - August 30, 2002

Marian Goodman Gallery is very pleased to announce the presentation of Makunaíma, a piece by Lothar Baumgarten drawn from a rarely exhibited body of work completed between 1978 and 1980, during an eighteen month period the artist spent living among the Yanõmami people of Kashorawë-theri and Nyapetawë-theri in the upper Orinoco region. The exhibition opens Friday, June 21st and will be on view through Friday, August 30th.

A sequence of fifteen black & white photographs describes a brief and dangerous river crossing undertaken by a band of Yanõmami returning from a two-month wayumi; an excursion dedicated to gathering and hunting. On the open river, in their canoes they are vulnerable to attack by their enemies from Konoboeböri-theri. Balancing all their possessions on their backs, their babies on their hips, the women disembark from the canoes, hurried and exhausted as they climb the muddy riverbank to the safety of the forest camouflage. After a short walk, they reach the large circle of the shabono, their communal house, which gives shelter to ninety people. With the embers they have carried from the day of their departure, they re-kindle cold fireplaces and in the rising smoke, they take their ease.

Lothar Baumgarten's most recent solo projects include Carbon, at the de Pont Foundation for Contemporary Art, Tilburg, the Netherlands, on view through June 16th, as well as a public project and permanent installation, Water Tower which will open in early May 2003 in Knokke, Belgium. Other recent projects have included solo exhibitions at The Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto; the Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt; the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; and last June at the Querini Stampalia, Venice, where How to See Venice was installed as part of the 49th Biennale of Venice.

Lothar Baumgarten has exhibited at numerous institutions in the U.S., his native Germany and abroad including: Kunsthaus, Zürich; Museum Kurhaus, Kleve, Germany; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and the National Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan; Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; ARC Musée de la Ville de Paris, Paris; the Tate Gallery, and The Serpentine Gallery London; Portikus, Frankfurt; Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Valencia; Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Kunsthalle, Bern; Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld; Musée des Arts Africains et Oceaniens, Paris; Museo Bellas Artes, Caracas,Venezeula; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Renaissance Society, Chicago; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. His many commissioned works have most recently included the design for the New Presidential Headquarters for the Federal Republic of Germany, Berlin (1996-1998), and the garden Theatrum Botanicum, created for the Fondation Cartier, Paris (1994-1996). Important group exhibitions include the 1991 and 1988 Carnegie International; Skulptur Projekte, Münster, 1987; Documenta 10, 9, 7, and 5, Kassel; and the 49th, 41st and 38th Venice Biennale (2001, 1984 and 1978).

Lothar Baumgarten has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Lichtwark Prize from the City of Hamburg (1997); The Golden Lion, First Prize of the 41st Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (1984); the Prize of the State of Nordrhein-Westfalen (1976); and the Prize of the City of Düsseldorf, Germany (1974). His most recent solo show at Marian Goodman Gallery was in May of 2001. Since 1994 he has been Professor at the University of Art Berlin, Germany.

The publication Makunaíma, first published in 1987 by the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, which includes black & white photographs by the artist and a text by Alejo Carpentier, will be available at the gallery for purchase during the exhibition.