Lothar Baumgarten

Lothar Baumgarten: Imago Mundi
January 27 - February 28, 2004
Opening Reception: Tuesday, January 27, 6-8 pm

Marian Goodman Gallery is delighted to present Imago Mundi by Lothar Baumgarten which will open to the public on Tuesday, January 27th, 2004 and will be on view through Saturday, February 28th. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Lothar Baumgarten is an artist who works primarily in site-specific contexts to achieve a momentum within a given space. Since the late 1960s, he has had a longstanding interest in creating dialectical, interactive works in an architectural context. He has received international attention for his ephemeral sculptures, extensive photographic work, slide projection pieces, film works, drawings, prints and books, as well as architectural layouts and site-specific wall drawings, which often function as an interactive grammar between language and form.

In the South Gallery:
Imago Mundi, 1988 [ L'autre et L'ailleurs] (others and otherness)
The graphic structure of this color separation guide, Print Your Own Color Patches , is the basis of a printed matter manufactured by Kodak for commercial use. Its color separation structure and grammar for printing use is, and functions as, a template to reflect the osmosis from a discourse on colonialism to tourism and global economics. The architectural space-related wall drawing makes use of the given layout of the printed matter foldout. The black-printed mask sections provide space to name the five continents: Africa - America - Asia -- Australia - The Antarctic-- to be juxtaposed with the names of the once dominant colonial powers of the European continent. Four significant colors: --cyan- yellow - magenta - black-become a catalyst and transform suddenly into ethnic colors, representing the peoples of a diverse contemporary world society.

In the North Gallery:
Double Pendulum/ Unity without Whole, 2002/2003.
The distinctive configuration of the five circular color charts, varied in diameter and color, and the associated disc mirror elements, organized in a sequential order, signifies the standstill of motion and time. Their composition and emblematic presence makes a palette of interchanging color tones (Farbempfindung) activating their aroma through their inherent pigment temperatures.
Their proportion and texture, flexibility and clarity, rhythm and harmony, culminate in simplicity and beauty. Their essence is propelled through the site-specific set-up in the given architectural context.
The indivisibility of the number five in its arithmetical figure is accomplished through the masculine three and the feminine two. Its physical structure and composition represents life and the human figure. It is the ordinal number of nature.

In the Annex of the North Gallery:
Feldweg (Track across the fields) (farm road), 2002/2003
The various black & white simultaneous slide projections in the annex of the North Gallery, mounted in individual circuits show in alternating rectangular and circular shapes, manipulated common circumstances, on or near a track across the fields.

In the Corridor:
Glint / Shade, 1992/2003
Referring to mirrors of various shapes and sizes, the Diamond and Keyhole interact with each other in the hallway leading from the North to South Gallery. Here they play out their relationship with each other within the traffic of the narrow corridor. Their shape, size and number are always, at a given time, related to the given architectural context.

Lothar Baumgarten has exhibited widely internationally. Important solo shows at venues in the U.S. include the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, as well as Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Museu Serravles, Porto; The National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto and Tokyo; and Documenta 5, 7, 9, and 10. His numerous awards have included the mfi Prize, Essen (2003); the Lichtwark Prize, the City of Hamburg, Germany (1997); The Golden Lion, First Prize of the 41st Venice Biennale, Venice (1984); the Prize of the State of Nordrhein-Westfalen (1976); and the Prize of the City of Dusseldorf (1974).

Recent solo projects include a presentation of the film The Origin of the Night: Amazon Cosmos (1973-77) at the Whitney Museum of American Art, from September through the end of November 2003; a show this summer titled Fogelvlug at the Skaftfell Cultural Center, Seydisfjordur, Iceland; and Plant Life Architecture, De Verbeelding; art landscape nature, Zeewolde, The Netherlands. Upcoming shows in 2004 include a public project and related audio work, Seven sounds/Seven circles, this Spring for which seven concrete circles will be established along the shoreline of the Hudson River and in the woods at Denning's Point State Park, which will be viewable throughout the peninsula. A related audio work of atmospheric sounds recorded at Denning's Point will be available on seven CD's, all as part of Watershed: The Hudson Valley Art Project, organized by Minetta Brook, NY. This coming summer, a one-man show will open in August at the Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland. In the Fall, a solo project will open in September at the Dallas Museum of Art., Texas, and in October a one-man show will be held at the Museum Kleve, Kleve, Germany.