Last week, I met the collector Herman Daled in his house, Hotel Wolfers, built by Henry Van de Velde. He told me he was really impressed by Julia Stoschek’s collection based in Düsseldorf. I have never been to Düsseldorf, but now I would like to go.

The current show presents the work of the American artist Sturtevant (born in 1930 in Lakewood, Ohio; died in 2014 in Paris). The exhibition was conceived in close collaboration with the artist. It focuses in detail on the artists’ media-based output for the first time.

Until August 10th !

Sturtevant, Kill, 2003, Wallpaper, dimension variable (photo: Simon Vogel)

Sturtevant, Be Stupid, 2003, singel-channel / video, 1’57’ (photo: Simon Vogel)

STURTEVANT’s radical, conceptually rigorous approach was often misconstrued. Her work did not center on the pure emulation or imitation of an artwork, rather she was using the power and heightened awareness that ensues from this differentiated “repetition”. STURTEVANT is interested in the thought process, in making the step from the representation in the image to the concept in the mind – she doesn’t simply depict things, but she gets to the bottom of them.

The artist was no stranger to controversy as early as the 1960s and 1970s. The works she recreated, including pieces by Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Joseph Beuys were later often considered iconic masterpieces.

(photo: Simon Vogel)

In the age of the digital revolution, she first of all noticeably acts at one remove from the original. She feels the idea of handmade repetition is outdated. The inclusion of images from the mass media and her own filmed material have given rise to an increasing number of time-based works since 2000. With the aesthetic and formal possibilities offered by the World Wide Web she analyzes the origins of knowledge, art and culture, and addresses the question how they can be produced and shared. Presently the work is considered crucial and dynamic towards our present cybernetics world with its digital implications and the question of what constitutes the original in a cyber-reality characterized by simulacra.

Sturtevant, Duchamp Fresh Widow, 1992-2012, Enamel painted on wood, leather, glass (photo: Simon Vogel)

For decades, she has commented on the art currents of that particular time, demonstrating to this day extraordinary farsightedness in both art-historical and philosophical terms. Her distinct contemporary approach represents the focal point of the JULIA STOSCHEK COLLECTION.