Also on view will be a
recent group of aluminum wall-mounted panel works. Genzken creates these
panels by layering various industrially produced, commercially
available materials on top of the flat aluminum support. These new
panels vary greatly in the density of their material embellishment.
Several of them feature smears and pools of acrylic lacquer that rest
loosely at times on the surface of the panel, while others are densely
covered in photographs, ephemera, and swatches of tape, foil, and
fabrics. Visually, the works reference the materials and surfaces of
minimalist sculpture, the gesturalism and materiality of
twentieth-century abstraction, the cladding on corporate office towers,
and modern screens and information surfaces, among other art-historical
and modern design traditions.
These recent works
testify to the importance of Genzken’s art today, as it continues to
redefine the way individuals relate to their ever-changing visual and
material environments.
Born in 1948 in Bad
Oldesloe, Germany, Isa Genzken studied fine arts, art history, and
philosophy in Hamburg, Berlin, and Cologne, before completing her
studies at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1977. Since 2004, her work has
been represented by David Zwirner. In 2019, she was the recipient of the
Nasher Prize, awarded every April by the Nasher Sculpture Center, in
Dallas.
Genzken’s work has been the subject of
many major museum exhibitions, including traveling surveys organized by
the Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn, Germany (1988; traveled to
Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen,
Rotterdam, both 1989); The Renaissance Society at The University of
Chicago (1992; traveled to Portikus, Frankfurt; Palais des Beaux-Arts,
Brussels; Städtisches Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, all 1993); Museum
Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany (2002; traveled to Kunsthalle
Zürich, 2003); and Whitechapel Gallery, London (2009; traveled to Museum
Ludwig, Cologne). Other venues that have hosted important solo
exhibitions include the Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany (2000); Museum
Ludwig, Cologne (2002); Camden Arts Centre, London (2006); Galerie im
Taxispalais, Innsbruck (2006); Secession, Vienna (2006); and Museion,
Bolzano, Italy (2010).
In 2013, The Museum of
Modern Art, New York, organized Genzken’s first museum survey in the
United States, Retrospective, making it the most comprehensive
presentation of her work to date, encompassing all media from the past
forty years. The show traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
and the Dallas Museum of Art in 2014. Also in 2014, Isa Genzken: New Works
was presented at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg and subsequently
traveled to the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt. In 2015, an
extensive survey of Genzken’s work was presented by the Stedelijk
Museum, Amsterdam. The show traveled to Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, in
2016. In 2019, Kunsthalle Bern in Switzerland presented a solo
exhibition of the artist’s work. Isa Genzken: Works, 1973–1983 is being presented at the Kunstmuseum Basel from September 5, 2020, to January 24, 2021.
Her
work has been prominently featured in international biennials and group
exhibitions including the 2007 Venice Biennale, where she represented
Germany.