Proof of Life

Works from a private collection

20.05.2017 - 25.03.2018

The Tower of Babel as a massacre. The artist as a dead revolutionary. A Gothic Window of Butterfly Wings – Proof of Life brings together over 100 paintings, sculptures, and photographic works that explore existential questions in a way that is both sensual and meaningful. Their aesthetic force draws the viewer in as if by magic. What they show is linked to a tradition of powerful images, some of which go back a long way. They quote, seduce, irritate, provoke, and at the same time address moral values. This includes the call not only to locate what is seen historically, but also to relate it concretely to the present. The works come from a private collection that has not yet been shown publicly in this form. Proof of Life presents a precise selection of works, some of them room-sized and extremely impressive, by international art stars such as Louise Bourgeois, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Anton Corbijn, Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, and Daniel Richter.

A central work in the exhibition is the “Death of Marat,” re-staged as a life-size full sculpture. Here, British artist Gavin Turk impressively fuses J.L. David’s well-known 1793 painting with his self-portrait. While David was concerned with portraying Marat as a martyr and exaggerating revolutionary virtues and ideals, Turk’s self-portrait connects the contemporary significance of art with the failure of the ideals of the Enlightenment and freedom.

Proof of Life asks whether and why such images, anchored in memory, are still relevant today. It shows how striking pre-images are updated in surprising ways and transformed into new pictorial inventions. The artistic results are at the same time fascinating and shocking, the aesthetic experiences possible with them multilayered and insightful. They become documents and symbols of the present time and thus vital signs of contemporary culture.

“The exhibition draws its strength from the power of the images, which by no means excludes deeper insights, but actually promotes them. The works do not leave us frozen in speechless awe, but trigger wonder, questions and doubts that we relate directly to the present. Why art can do such a thing and why certain ancient motifs are not frozen in a museum, but continue to be very much alive, are central questions of this exhibition,” Peter Friese, director of the Weserburg.

Several works on view expand on these issues in sometimes oppressive ways. Jake and Dinos Chapman use the biblical narrative of the Tower of Babel as a parable of the disintegration of all cultural commonalities. In the form of a model with countless, frighteningly violent figures, they show the biblical building project as a massacre. Damien Hirst again contributes a monumental church window to the exhibition. But instead of lead-framed colored glass, he had thousands of brightly colored and fluorescent butterfly wings processed. How is pain transformed into beauty, transience into permanence? How is matter transformed into spirit, the mundane butterfly a symbol of the soul? John Isaacs presents a 1:1 adaptation and reshaping of Michelangelo’s famous Pieta in Carrara marble. However, the world-famous motif, the Madonna with the dead body of Jesus on her lap, is hidden from our view as if covered by a thin silk cloth.

“The artists continue art- and culture-historical contexts in an intelligent, hitherto unseen way. Neither do they transfigure models, nor do they imitate them. They renew familiar perspectives, whether they come from representational or abstract art.” Peter Friese, Director of the Weserburg

Artists

Hilary Berseth, Louise Bourgeois, Berlinde de Bruyckere, Patrick van Caeckenbergh, Jake & Dinos Chapman, George Condo, Anton Corbijn, Thierry de Cordier, Danny Devos, Tracey Emin, Tom Friedman, Line Gulsett, Damien Hirst, Roni Horn, Thomas Houseago, John Isaacs, Sergej Jensen, Nadav Kander, Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven, Anselm Kiefer, Esther Kläs, Wolfe von Lenkiewicz, Alastair Mackie, Christian Marclay, Kate MccGwire, Richard Prince, Leopold Rabus, Daniel Richter, Terry Rodgers, Sterling Ruby, Richard Serra, Andres Serrano, Stephen Shanabrook, Mircea Suciu, Gavin Turk, Jonathan Wateridge.