From the top: (1) Klasse Martin Gostner (Oliver Blumek & Rebekka Benzenberg); (2) Klasse Andreas Gursky (Alexander Föllenz); (3) Klasse Eberhard Havekost (Peter Uka); (4) Klasse Hubert Kiecol (Sebastian Bathe); (5) Klasse Katharina Fritsch (Tobias Przybilla); (6) Klasse Richard Deacon; (7) Klasse Thomas Grünfeld (Mevlana Lipp & Daniel Struzyna, Inessa Emmer); (8) Klasse Thomas Grünfeld (Sebastian Mejia); (9) Klasse Martin Gostner (Melike Kara & Teye Gerbracht); (10) Klasse Andreas Gursky (Isabella Fürnkäs); all images copyright Benny Höhne & artfridge.de
Two weeks ago, the annual Düsseldorf Art Academy Rundgang (Degree Show) took place. How that was like? To put it briefly: better and...tidy! Better, because qualitatively on a sharply higher level than last year. Tidy, because many other classes apparently adapted the style of Andreas Gursky's almost sterile, gallery-like classroom of the past years as an example and delivered amazingly clean room presentations this year. Anyway, it seemed as if they would have given more thoughts and a little more caring. Thus, some classes surprised with innovative and updated exhibition concepts.
Katharina Grosse's students, for example, did 10 hours a day solely performances, including really good ones, although none of them is actually a performing artist. Rita McBride's class got their professor's ex-student and video artist Manuel Graf as an external co-curator on board and convinced the visitor with a very exciting room arrangement, in which everything appeared subtly interconnected. Professor Martin Gostner, on the other hand, told his students to work in duos. Here, especially the mixed media installation of Oliver Blumek and Rebekka Benzenberg was striking, which shocked after a short time - rather because of its obtrusive smell, than because of the duo's raw home video or the dead fish that was decaying in a water basin. Melike Kara and Teye Gerbracht combined their radically different works in a monumental, seemingly sacral triptych and presented a catalogue, which was specifically designed for this piece. Christopher Williams’ class, again, conceptualised a varied week's program and stages daily changing lectures, performances and film screenings.
Along these class concepts, there were interesting final presentations on view this time, out of which those by Niko Ikonomeas, Jan-Ole Schiemann and Hanna-Katharina Körner should be highlighted. Not only those showed successful paintings, but also and especially Behrang Karimi, who is studying under Peter Doig, and Allan Rand, who is studying under Tomma Abts. Both convinced, although they are coming from two completely different classes, with their faintly similar, partly impressionist-like sketches. Altogether, the 2013 Rundgang of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf was a good show, suggesting a big anticipation for the next time. By the way: As every year, there was state of emergency at the Tony-Cragg-led Academy building with loads of people queuing in front of the entrance already before noon. So...be early in 2014!
Website: Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
Katharina Grosse's students, for example, did 10 hours a day solely performances, including really good ones, although none of them is actually a performing artist. Rita McBride's class got their professor's ex-student and video artist Manuel Graf as an external co-curator on board and convinced the visitor with a very exciting room arrangement, in which everything appeared subtly interconnected. Professor Martin Gostner, on the other hand, told his students to work in duos. Here, especially the mixed media installation of Oliver Blumek and Rebekka Benzenberg was striking, which shocked after a short time - rather because of its obtrusive smell, than because of the duo's raw home video or the dead fish that was decaying in a water basin. Melike Kara and Teye Gerbracht combined their radically different works in a monumental, seemingly sacral triptych and presented a catalogue, which was specifically designed for this piece. Christopher Williams’ class, again, conceptualised a varied week's program and stages daily changing lectures, performances and film screenings.
Along these class concepts, there were interesting final presentations on view this time, out of which those by Niko Ikonomeas, Jan-Ole Schiemann and Hanna-Katharina Körner should be highlighted. Not only those showed successful paintings, but also and especially Behrang Karimi, who is studying under Peter Doig, and Allan Rand, who is studying under Tomma Abts. Both convinced, although they are coming from two completely different classes, with their faintly similar, partly impressionist-like sketches. Altogether, the 2013 Rundgang of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf was a good show, suggesting a big anticipation for the next time. By the way: As every year, there was state of emergency at the Tony-Cragg-led Academy building with loads of people queuing in front of the entrance already before noon. So...be early in 2014!
Website: Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
From the top: (1) Klasse Andreas Gursky (Tim Löhde); (2) Klasse Georg Herold (Niko Ikonomeas, Catherine Biocca); (3) Klasse Georg Herold (Talisa Lallai, Katharina Beilstein, Robert Brambora, Sabine Voltz); (4) Klasse Georg Herold (Malte Bruns); (5) Klasse Siegfried Anzinger (Hanna-Katharina Körner); (6) Klasse Katharina Grosse; (7) Klasse Rita McBride; (8) Klasse Katharina Fritsch (Kristin Wenzel); (9) Klasse Lucy McKenzie (Ulrike Kazmaier, David Czupryn); (10) Klasse Rosemarie Trockel (Filiz Özcelik); (11) Klasse Johannes Schütz (Simone Grieshaber); (12) Klasse Tomma Abts (Allan Rand); (13) Klasse Tomma Abts (Vera Mündel, Jonas Maas); (14) Klasse Hubert Kiecol (Soo Hong, Berit Schneidereit, Richard Köhler); (15) Klasse Andreas Schulze (Jan-Ole Schiemann); all images copyright Benny Höhne & artfridge.de