Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart. To the Absolute Through the Abstract
Thursday, June 28, 2018, 6:00 PM - Sunday, September 23, 2018
At the threshold of his artistic career, the German artist Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart (1899-1962) proclaimed that “form no longer has any contact with the appearance of Nature” and “there is really no content in art”. Over the course of forty years, he painstakingly searched for universality through his abstract works. During the 1930s he was one of the many artists whose work was declared as “degenerate” in Nazi Germany; his paintings were confiscated, and he and his Jewish wife emigrated to the Netherlands. Vordemberge-Gildewart was a member of the most important avant-garde art collectives of the time, such as De Stijl and Der Sturm, and his friends included Piet Mondrian and Oskar Kokoschka. He made his mark in the history of art as a painter. His works are held in some of the most prestigious museum collections around the globe, including MoMA in New York, Tate Moder in London and Centre Pompidou in Paris. Launched in June, the exhibition To the Absolute Through the Abstract held at MOCAK until 23 September presents over twenty of his works loaned from European collections. (Dorota Dziunikowska, “Karnet” monthly)
MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow
ul. Lipowa 4
The combination of post-industrial atmosphere with a modern and functional glass and concrete structure provides a perfect framework for the presentation of important phenomena in the art of the last five decades.
A memory of the former production halls of the enamelware factory (known from Steven Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List) melds here with a modern and functional structure of glass and concrete, providing a perfect setting for the presentation of contemporary art. MOCAK has its own, regularly expanded collection of art (both Polish and foreign) from the last five decades, and its development can be traced in the successive variations of the permanent exhibition. It has been divided into a number of sections: conceptualism, video, sculpture, and objects. It is also the venue for numerous temporary exhibitions, including a large annual problematic exhibition confronting selected questions in contemporary public life with the artists’ outlook (the presentations made so far have focused among others on history, sport, economics, crime, gender, and medicine in art). Moreover, MOCAK regularly hosts exhibitions of Kraków Photo Month. The museum runs its own library with a book collection devoted to contemporary art and humanities, runs educational activities, and manages and implements research and publication projects.
Tickets: normal PLN 20, concessions PLN 10, family PLN 43, admission free to permanent exhibitions on Thursday
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