GROUP SHOW
THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
November 15, 2019 – October 15, 2020
Every month, always and only on the 15th, widmertheodoridis presents one artistic position from this group show that explores the portrait genre. Based on the depiction of human figures and faces ‘The Beauty and the Beast’ picks up current subjects and concepts of contemporary art, such as representation and ideal of beauty, alienation and reality, or identity. The group show in the mini-exhibition space HORST ends with the last presentation scheduled on August 15, 2020.
Last presentation:
Tuesday, September 15, 2020, 6 pm
Supplement
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Eight' presentation:
Saturday, August 15, 2020, 6 pm
Werner Widmer
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Seventh presentation:
Wednesday, July 15, 2020, 6 pm
Daniel Ammann
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Sixt presentation:
Monday, June 15, 2020, 6 pm
Heike Müller
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Fifth presentation:
Sunday, March 15, 2020, 6 pm
Almira Medaric
Next presentation:
Friday, May 15, 2020, 6 pm
Heike Müller
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Fourth presentation:
Saturday, February 15, 2020, 6 pm
Anita Zimmermann
Next presentation:
Sunday, March 15, 2020, 6 pm
Almira Medaric
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Third presentation:
Wednesday, January 15, 2020, 6 pm
Alex Demarmels
Second presentation:
Sunday, December 15, 2019, 6 pm
Elisabeth Nembrini
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Frist presentation:
Friday, November 15, 2019, 6 pm
Judit Villiger
In her research Judit Villiger works with images of persons–women of eastern Switzerland who were socially engaged and yet were (and still are) not mentioned in history. She alienates the found images, arranges and contextualises them in a block and by doing so offers a new perspective on history.
Tuesday, September 15, 2020, 6 pm
Supplement
For the last part of the group show selected works from the widmertheodoridis collection will be presented. The works in different techniques and sizes show various aspects of the portrait genre and allow a renewed immersion into the topic of ‘The Beauty and the Beast’.
Collections always express the weltanschuung of the respective owner. The first collections date back to the Renaissance and were equipped by sovereigns, princes and scholars as cabinets of wonder: showrooms in which precious works of art (artificialia), rare natural products (naturalia), scientific instruments (scientifica), objects from alien lands (exotica) and wondrously things (mirabilia) were stored. As a collection with encyclopaedical character the cabinets of wonder and curiosities were intended to picture a miniature world illustrating the position of man. A cabinet mirrored the philosophy of nature of the early modern times as well as the categories of knowledge upon which the understanding of the world in the 16th and 17th century was based. Accordingly the exhibits were grouped in two categories: for one thing naturalia, creations of god, and otherwise artificialia, creations of man. The borderline between these two groups was fluent inasmuch as the cabinets aimed to show that men’s artistry can ennoble nature. That’s precisely the exploration field of the series ‘The Beauty (Artificialia) and The Beast (Naturalia)’.
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Eight' presentation:
Saturday, August 15, 2020, 6 pm
Werner Widmer
The premise of Werner Widmer's work is the misappropriation of the material - be it photography, sugar or even firewood. Most of his installations are site-specific, walkable and usable, and after their presentation often no longer exist. "I use material for my installations and ask the visitor to destroy it by walking all over it. It is an act of violence - on the one hand against the medium (and the individual and very personal associations and links with it), and certainly against the work itself”. Widmer’s approach is very different from that of minimalist artists, such as Carl André, who also places tiles on the floor for the audience to step on and leave foot prints behind. The installations are placed on the ground in such a way that they surprise the viewer and more often than not, the viewer accidently steps on the surface, before he knows it.
Sugar is not a permanent material, it changes its consistency depending upon the environment in which it is placed. Another important concept also resonates in Widmer’s work: namely food – may food be misappropriated, misused and wasted? Widmer uses hundrets of kilos of sugar cubes for his installations, which can no longer be consumed afterwards. It is wasted … The motives for his sugar works have very different sources and the effect can also be read on different levels: as patterns, mosaics, architectural accessories or narratives. Widmer uses brown and white sugar cubes (or cylinders) exclusively to create the pixeled pattern.
For ‘The Beauty and the Beast’, he is lifting the sugar mosaics for the first time off the floor, and places them in frames on the wall in 20 frames. As subject, he has chosen a movie still from one of his video productions. From a distance, the viewer can see the monkey face; however as you approach the work, it become abstract. Each of the frames develops into its own abstract entity. The work, entitled ‚Give Sugar to the Monkeys’ refers to the entertainment industry, and the constant need for the entertainment industry to come up with increasingly new and different ways to capture the attention of the audience. Foods are used but not consumed (‘One does not play with food!’) also adds tension. In using sugar here, Widmer emphasizes the multifaceted contradictions of consumer society.
Werner Widmer has juxtaposed the ‘Monkey’ with his newest work ‘Me Myself I’. Round sugar cubes are forming these words on three mirrors–in braille. Illegible to the common visitor but still possible to be experienced in a tactile way. Stepping closer one detects its own reflection. The self-portrait–selfie–on the other hand remains visually unreadable for the blind and inevitable raises the question what kind of self-image blind people have. The motif of image, display and mirror image picks up the issue of self-portrayal in social media. In an online-world which is fuelled by user friendly apps everyone and everything is flawless. The self-image becomes estranged from reality–appearance becomes reality.
Werner Widmer lives and works in Eschlikon. He has been educated at the School of Art and Design and gratuaded with a industrial design degree. His work has been part of many shows: Hiltibold St.Gallen, Transformator Kollbrun, Villa Sutter Münchwilen, Kunstbezirk Stuttgart, Pavillon am Milchhof Berlin, Jetzt Kunst at Max Frisch Bad Zurich, Kunsthalle Wil, Frosch&Portmann New York, Haus zur Glocke Steckborn, Geiler Block, MARS Mailand, Balzer Projects Basel, Dienstgebäude Zürich, Galerie reinart Neuhausen, Neue Galerie Innsbruck, The Others Turin.
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Seventh presentation:
Wednesday, July 15, 2020, 6 pm
Daniel Ammann
Mummy portraits, also known as Fayum mummy portraits, named after their finding place in the Fayum Basin, are among the oldest coloured panel paintings in the world. In fact they can be viewed as the first photorealistic portraits. The naturalistic depiction of the deceased is a combination of ancient Egyptian tradition and Romain elements. Mummy portraits replaced the older Egyptian mummy burial masks with their idealised facial features. The latest portraits belong to the second half of the 3rd century. Autonomous panel paintings were forgotten for more than one thousand years, until 1350 when the portrait of John the Good, King of France was created. The rest is history of art: da Vinci, Raffael, Titian, Holbein, Rubens, Rembrandt, Renoir, Klimt, Bacon and Freud, just to name a few of the most important portrait painters.
With the rise and increasing perfection of photography in the 19th century portrait painting lost its primary function and significance. Nowadays portraits are mainly created by photographers, such as August Sander (+1984), who is regarded as one of the most important portrait photographers of the early 20th century. His project ‘People of the 20th Century’ had opened a new era in the history of photography. August Sander had collected and defined portraits of people according to their class and profession, such as the farmers, the tradesmen, women or the homeless. Richard Avedon (+2004), known for his puristic portraits against neutral backdrop of celebrities, such as Brigitte Bardot or Marilyn Monroe, was a pioneer for generations of photographers. Or Annie Leibovitz who creates complex portraits of personalities, such as the Queen Elisabeth of England with her grand children.
Portrait photography intends to catch the perfect moment: the moment when a person is at ease and is naturally looking into the camera. Daniel Ammann has a long experience in the field of photography. He has been working since 1994 as a free lance press photographer covering countless events and reports. According to him the best pictures are shot at the end of a session. Just when he casually invites the model to hold something, to pull a face or just to move a bit. It’s this moment Daniel Ammann has been waiting for. To catch ‘the picture’. Unlooked-for. In the perfect moment.
Daniel Ammann lives and works in Herisau. In 1997 he completed his studies as a photographer at the F+F Schule für Gestaltung in Zurich. Ever since he has worked as a free lance press photographer for the news agency Reuters and various Swiss and foreign newspapers. Daniel Ammann received in 1999 the Fuji Swiss Press Award and the eastern Switzerland Media Award in 2005 and 2007. Sabon/Vexer published in 2003 his book ‘Heimat’ and in 2004 Daniel Amman self-published the photo book ‘Great Picture Point’, a coverage of the South Pacific area.
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Sixt presentation:
Monday, June 15, 2020, 6 pm
Heike Müller
Renaissance artists, such as Michelangelo (+1564) and Leonardo da Vinci (+1519) are among the first ones who became emancipated from their clients and acted as creators of their own world rather than being mere manufacturers. The rise of humanism affirmed the dignity and value of all men but also improved the social standing of women. However, artists like Artemisia Gentileschi remained the exception since women were still not allowed to study the human body. It was not until modernity and the end of WW2 that women artists were granted access to equal and professional education at the academies of arts. Women, such as Alice Neel (+1984) with her portraits as well as Elaine de Kooning who was very successful with her male models in the 1950’s paved the way for many careers of women artists.
Starting with photographic templates and tableaus Heike Müller has developed in the last few years towards painted male portraits. Fascinated by form and expression she presents numerous works of men in various poses: whilst reading, resting, contemplating. Men in white shirts–with long or short sleeves–are among her favourites.
Beauty is still part of the expectations one has towards art, however expectations cannot be scaled down only to that. Alexander G. Baumgarten described in the 18th century the cognitive possibilities through sensual perception: That which is beautiful in art outdoes the beauty in nature. Nature is no longer the unrivalled idol, but now art and the newly acquired ways of perception help us see nature. The beautiful landscape is an invention of painting. In nature there are only woods, meadows, farmland, trees, mountains and bodies. Nature only becomes a harmonious and beautiful ensemble through the aesthetically trained look.
Heike Müller lives and works in Basel. She completed her studies in 1993 at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland and in 1995 at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. In 2017 she received the Esther Matossi Foundation award. Heike Müller’s works are presented in numerous national and international shows and are part of many collections, such as the Museum of Fine Arts in Thurgau.
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Fifth presentation:
Sunday, March 15, 2020, 6 pm
Almira Medaric
When 1463 the Ottomans under Sultan Mehmet II. conquered the area of Bosnia, it was the beginning of a dark period: four hundred years of suffering for the catholic villages. The conqueror began quite quickly to levy taxes in form of a 'boy rate'. A form of tax where boys and teenagers were kidnapped and trained in special army barracks to become Muslims and fighters for the Sultan.
The Catholic girls however had to face the harem. After being kidnapped they were forced to serve other women in the harem or had to be at the Sultan’s disposal to give birth to his successors. These abductions mark the beginning of the first tattoos. The women started to tattoo one another signs and patterns on foreheads, breasts, backs and hands. As a spiritual safeguard when kidnapped in order to remember their Christian values. The tools they used were simple needles and a mixture of goat milk or mother’s milk of a woman who just had given birth to a male baby. Soot, honey, spit and coal were also added. Young women in Bosnia have revived for some time now this ritual. They remember their own grandmothers and their tattoos and are aiming to make a mark of belonging and tradition.
When last year the COSMOS collective settled at the Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Almira Medaric took a look at the Ittingen Charterhouse and her Bosnian origin. She developed the series 'Krizevi' (crosses) and adapted simple, ornamental compositions. They were subsequently applied on the faces of the female members of the collective and photographed.
Almira Medaric lives and works in Frauenfeld and Yverdon-Les-Bains. She completed her studies in 2015 with a Master in Fine Arts at the Academy of Art and Design, FHNW I HGK, Basel and with a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the ECAL, Lausanne. In 2017 she received the Adolf Dietrich Award. Her works are presented in many exhibitions, such as Werkschau Thurgau 19, Heimspiel Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Hiltibold St. Gallen, Hizzez Haut (Visarte Vaud, Lausanne), Space Out (Payerne), Zig Zag (Kunstraum Kreuzlingen), Center of Sound, Margin of Silence (Zagreb, HR), Kunstwege Pontresina. Almira Medaric is currently the director of the Shed in Frauenfeld.
Next presentation:
Friday, May 15, 2020, 6 pm
Heike Müller
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Fourth presentation:
Saturday, February 15, 2020, 6 pm
Anita Zimmermann
Kings do it. Presidents do it. Even bishops do it: have themselves portrayed.
In 2001 Lucian Freud delivered a portrait of Elisabeth II that he had executed. An extraordinary painting in many ways. It was not commissioned by the British Royal House but a present from the artist to the Royal Collection Trust. Elisabeth decided to take the plunge with Freud despite knowing that the artist would not execute a whitewash painting. The statement from the Palace was then quite brief, “An extremely powerful painting!” It is said, that the comment on Francisco de Goya’s work was just as reserved when he painted in 1800 the Royal Family of Carlos IV. In 2018 Kehinde Wiley, a shooting star of the American art scene, was commissioned to carry out a portrait of Barack Obama, President of the United States. Obama himself was rather delighted of Wiley’s ability to show “the beauty and the grace and the dignity” of Black people in a grand way. Given the requirements that such commissions involve these artists–and many others, too–succeeded in including their own personal view as well as the zeitgeist.
In 1995 Anita Zimmermann was asked by the Diocese of St. Gallen to paint three Bishops: Joseph Hasler, Othmar Mäder und Ivo Fürer. Quite a surprise for Anita Zimmermann but maybe the choice fell on her because she was after all the most confident. When talking on the phone with the episcopal representative she said, “I believe (!) I’m the right one for this job!” At that time she was quite well-known for her weekly portraits of personalities of St. Gallen which were displayed in the Kunsthalle St. Gallen. For the bishop paintings she decided to apply the classical egg tempera method. The format and the green background were given but the rest bears all the hallmarks of Anita Zimmermann.
Anita Zimmermann lives and works in St. Gallen. She is one of the funding members of the project room Exex, the exhibition platform *5ünfstern and the platform Hiltibold. She received in 2018 the Promotional Award from the Cultural Foundation of the Canton of St. Gallen and 1993 and 2015 the Promotional Award of the City of St. Gallen, in 2006 a work grant from the City of St. Gallen and 2017 one from the Canton of St. Gallen. In 2011 she was commissioned to develop a fountain for the newly build Federal Administrative Court in St. Gallen. As Leila Bock she founded in 2015 the art project ‘Geiler Block’ which will take place in 2020 in Arbon TG for the third time with over 50 participating artists. She created a sensation in 2018 when she set up ‘Hock–der Hund von Leila Bock’, a five meter high styrofoam sculpture depicting a dog in the midst of the Abbey district of St. Gallen. 2019 the Lienhard-Foundation of Degersheim commissioned her to create the annual art calendar.
Next presentation:
Sunday, March 15, 2020, 6 pm
Almira Medaric
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Third presentation:
Wednesday, January 15, 2020, 6 pm
Alex Demarmels
New York, Paris, Wales, Zurich, Barcelona, Orlando, Munich, London. Those are just a few of the many places. There is no such place where ‘it’ didn’t happen or still does. It, is violence. Violence against people, who think different, look different, love different. Violence comprises a wide range of attacks and infringements of the physical, psychological and social integrity and dignity of a human being. Violence can be expressed openly, but comes more often in subtle and barely perceptible forms. These different forms of violence can occur together and mostly in alleged safe places–and of course even in enlightened, liberal societies.
Alex Demarmels presents in his newest series ‘Hitten Faces’ a selection of gay men who became a target for violence. His portraits represent self-assertion and empowerment, are resistance and action. The images show men who don’t view themselves as the victims but who confidently oppose violence and stand up for their way of life. Alex Demarmels uses for his big format works bold luminous colours on white: pink, orange, green. The same colours that are used for markers to highlight text passages. The images are striking and are sending out a clear signal against violence towards lesbians, gays and transpersons*. Hate crimes, hate speech and violence against LGBT are prosecuted in many countries. In February Switzerland will vote in a referendum to include theses cases under criminal law.
Alex Demarmels lives and works in Thalwil. He has completed his studies at the School For Fine Arts Zurich in 1982. From 1993 till 1997 he has mainly worked for the studio of Peter Stiefel in Kilchberg. After a long career in graphic design he has focused since 2009 completely on painting. His works appeared in numerous exhibitions.
***Second presentation:
Sunday, December 15, 2019, 6 pm
Elisabeth Nembrini
Elisabeth Nembrini employs own, art-historical or media pictures: portraits of the upper class with animals such as stoats, parrots or unicorns. She transforms in a long process these photographs by employing perforation, reversion or positiv-negativ-conversion, thereby striving to taper a subliminal ambivalent mood.
For 'The Beauty and the Beast' Elisabeth Nembrini has developed a series of projections of portrait paintings with dogs. Starting from Gustave Courbet's self-portraits she presents 'Courbet au chien noir (Portrait de l’artiste)' as a modified overhead-projection. The long hair and the black cape depict the image of a bohemian in front of a romantic landscape, which had come into fashion in England in that time. While the aspiring society of the 18th century were shaped by industrialisation and developed a scientific and technical character, the Romantics focussed on the mysterious and the mystic world which contained the dreamy and the inexplicable. The bourgeois values were regarded as square and therefore were derided. The small-minded attitude of society had to be rejected which Courbet successfully demonstrated with his painting 'L’origine du monde' a few years later.
Elisabeth Nembrini lives and works in St. Gallen. She graduated from the Lucerne University of Applied Science and Arts. Her works have been shown at: Hiltibold St. Gallen, White Space Zürich, Kulturraum S4 Bahnhof Lichtensteig, The Others Turin, Geiler Block Trogen, Werkschau TG 16 Kunstmuseum Thurgau, ‘Ausgezeichnet’ Kulturraum des Kantons St. Gallen and Kunstzeughaus Rapperswil. She has received a number of awards and realized quite a few projects in public space, such as Landwirtschaftliche Zentrum Salez, St. Galler Kantonalbank Heerbrugg and University of St. Gallen.
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Frist presentation:
Friday, November 15, 2019, 6 pm
Judit Villiger
In her research Judit Villiger works with images of persons–women of eastern Switzerland who were socially engaged and yet were (and still are) not mentioned in history. She alienates the found images, arranges and contextualises them in a block and by doing so offers a new perspective on history.
Judit Villiger lives and works in Zurich and Steckborn TG. Her work has been presented in numerous shows in Switzerland and abroad. She has completed her studies with a Master of Fine Arts an der School of Visual Arts, NYC. In 2012 she has been appointed as a lecturer in Art Education for BAE and MAE studies at the Zurich University of Fine Arts. Judit Villiger received in 2018 the culture award of the Canton of Thurgau and is the founder and director of the art project ‘Haus zur Glocke’.
Exhibition
November 15, 2019 – September 15, 2020
Opening reception:
Always on the 15th of the month at 6 pm
Opening hours inbetween the presentations:
by appointment
Opening reception:
Always on the 15th of the month at 6 pm
Opening hours inbetween the presentations:
by appointment