Rita Ackermann
22.10 2016–22.1 2017
Rita Ackermann broke through on the New York art scene in the early 1990s with her sleek yet evocative depictions of the female body. Her large paintings of nymph-like girls, drawn with lines that evoke both beauty and ugliness, attracted considerable attention and secured her a place in the contemporary cultural sphere. These early works have served as the foundation for her latest series of paintings, titled “The Chalkboard Paintings”.
The exhibition at Malmö Konsthall, Ackermann’s first in Scandinavia, explores the relationship between these two series, created more than twenty years apart, and invites the viewer to experience the different layers within the works. The expressive line, the depiction of the body, and the enigmatic and bold gestures each contribute to the dichotomy between the beautiful and the violent. To see what is visible and feel what is not, to sense the spaces in between and the disappearance. The gradual dissolution of any resemblance to the human form, on the verge of nothingness.
The Blackboard
Ackermann has recently described how she works with these ‘Blackboard Paintings’ in an interview with Jeff Grunthaner for Whitehot magazine: ‘The works are created through repeated erasures. The process is the same as what happens on a blackboard in a classroom. A shape or image is drawn on the black or green board, only to be erased before the next lesson. Since I start by priming the canvases with chalkboard paint, they have to be stretched on the wall. The erasures are forceful and physical. I discovered that the more manic the erasing, the more visible the drawing beneath the layers of wiped-away chalk dust sometimes becomes. The delicacy and humility of the obviously “simple” material — the chalk — turns out to be what offers the greatest resistance.’ Read the full interview here.
Curator: Per Haubro
Rita Ackermann was born in 1968 in Budapest. After completing her studies, she moved to New York in the early 1990s, where she still lives and works. Her work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions around the world. In 2009, during her residency at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, she spent several months focusing on the abstract conceptual elements of her work. Her classical training at the Hungarian Academy of Arts in Budapest, along with her interest in philosophy—particularly Paul Virilio and his discussions on the logistics of perception and disappearance—has influenced both her life and art. The figures that emerge in her work are fundamentally classically composed, yet deeply rooted in contemporary conceptual perspectives.
Her most recent solo exhibitions include “Chalkboard Paintings” at Hauser & Wirth Zürich (2015); “Meditation on Violence – Hair Wash” at Sammlung Friedrichshof, Zurndorf, and Sammlung Friedrichshof Stadtraum, Vienna (2014); “Negative Muscle”, Hauser & Wirth New York (2013); “Fire by Days”, Hauser & Wirth London (2012); Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (2012); Bakos, Ludwig Museum, Budapest (2011); and “Rita Ackermann and Harmony Korine: ShadowFux”, Swiss Institute, New York (2010).
Ackermann’s work has also been shown in numerous group exhibitions: “Extreme Drawing: Ballpoint Pen Drawing Since 1950”, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield (2013); “Pivot Points: 15 Years and Counting”, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami (2013); “Looking at Music: 3.0”, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2011); “It’s All American”, New Jersey Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2010); “Street and Studio”, Kunsthalle Wien (2010); “Sonic Youth etc.: Sensational Fix”, Malmö Konsthall, Malmö (2009); and “Whitney Biennial” 2008, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Photo: Robin Eriksson
Photo: Helene Toresdotter
