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October 23, 2022–February 26, 2023
Opening: : October 23, 11:30am
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Maison Sonia and Personal Patterns are part of the HLHE Dialogue exhibition series, which showcases the art of Sonia Delaunay and Andrea Zittel under the Leitmotif Living Abstraction. According to the museum director Katia Baudin, who initiated this dual exhibition, “the neighboring modernist villas by Mies van der Rohe serve as the ideal backdrop and catalyst for a fruitful encounter between two visionary female artistic positions who have striven to break down the barriers separating art and everyday life, using the language of abstraction to examine and respond to societal changes.”
Maison Sonia in Haus Lange
Sonia Delaunay, an avant-garde painter and fashion designer (Odessa, 1885–Paris, 1979), obtained her first commission from a Lyon textile factory in 1923, which drastically altered the course of her artistic career. She then began creating elaborately patterned fabrics for use in both interior and fashion design, which enabled her to succeed on a global scale and give birth to the Atelier Simultané. A stunning collection of the artist’s textile creations that the Kunstmuseen Krefeld 2019 bought serves as the exhibition’s starting point. With a focus on the history and relevance of the Simultané concept, Sonia Delaunay’s workshop, her skills as a networker and businessman, her industrial collaborations, and her seemingly limitless variety of media from the 1910s to the 1970s are all explored in this show. It brings together a diverse range of interdisciplinary works, including significant international loans, in fields including fashion, textiles, furniture, advertising, book design, film, and photography.
A major publication Maison Sonia Delaunay is published by Hatje Cantz in separate German and English editions in conjunction with the exhibition. Contributions by internationally renowned scholars such as Pascal Rousseau (Sorbonne University, Paris), Marketa Uhlirova (Central Saint-Martins, London), and Margarete Zimmermann (FU Berlin, former director of the Center for French Studies) shed light on hitherto unexplored aspects of Sonia Delaunay’s life and work.
Andrea Zittel: Personal Patterns in Haus Esters
Andrea Zittel (born 1965 in Escondido, California, US), one of the most significant artists of her generation, has reinterpreted sculpture as a component of daily life. Artist occupies Haus Esters for her first solo exhibition in Germany in 20 years. Since the 1990s, Zittel has conducted “test sites” for her exploration of the area around her, initially in the urban setting of New York City and then in the California desert with her own property A-Z West. She is fascinated by how design in particular reflects human needs. Zittel creates futuristic furniture, clothing, and architecture that is straightforward, geometric, and influenced by the avant-gardes of the early 20th century. She develops a synthesis between art, design, and architecture with her pared-down pieces, which are generally made up of fundamental geometric forms. Artist, businessperson, and private individual all become one with art and daily life. Her conceptual and experimental works are informed by her interest in fundamental human needs, which are particularly reflected in and shape spatial designs. Zittel’s personal and aesthetic patterns now converge with Mies van der Rohe’s constructed utopia of a new life. Her works swing between function and abstraction, as seen by international loans and pieces created especially for the spaces of the house. In this way, Zittel offers fresh viewpoints on seemingly self-evident—but potentially false—ways of living.
A publication in German and English is being produced to accompany the exhibition.
Artistic Direction, Living Abstraction: Katia Baudin, Director Kunstmuseen Krefeld
Curators, Maison Sonia: Waleria Dorogova, Katia Baudin
Curator, Andrea Zittel: Juliane Duft
Museums Haus Lange and Haus Esters
Wilhelmshofallee 91-97
47800 Krefeld
Germany
