AMSTERDAM.- This spring the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam illuminates the rich oeuvre of the German artist G黱ther F鰎g. The survey features no fewer than 100 works, including some pieces never seen before in a museum.

A major survey of the German artist G黱ther F鰎g (1952–2013) opens at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam on 26 May 2018. Under the title A Fragile Beauty, the show reveals the full breadth and scope of F鰎g’s oeuvre. Taking its cue from the artist himself— who presented his work in installations conceived with exquisite precision —each room is individual in nature. Included are F鰎g’s early monochrome paintings, together with his color studies, (architectural) photographs, sculptures, and late spot paintings. A Fragile Beauty traces the entire trajectory of F鰎g’s career. This comprehensive survey offers audiences a chance to engage with the complexity of his themes and fascinations, and witness the evolution of his experimental, radical approach.

Intriguing
G黱ther F鰎g was as equally influential on the twentieth-century German art scene as, for example, Martin Kippenberger. He produced photographs and paintings, as well as wall paintings, sculptures, and reliefs. In the 1980s and ’90s F鰎g’s work was continually reinterpreted: initially considered a postmodernist, he was later seen as engaging with the legacy of expressionism. F鰎g was, without doubt, an artist who challenged the parameters of disciplines. His work contains references to famous predecessors and artists he admired, such as Edvard Munch, Philip Guston, Barnett Newman, and Clyfford Still. F鰎g’s interdisciplinary practice questioned artistic conventions and analyzed modernism and its aesthetic.

Relationship with the Stedelijk
The Stedelijk and F鰎g maintained a close relationship that first flourished in the 1980s. The museum began collecting F鰎g early on his career and regularly made his work the subject of presentations, publications, and debate. In 1985 Wim Beeren, director from 1985 until 1993, held the exhibition G黱ther F鰎g & Jeff Wall. In 1995 Rudi Fuchs, director from 1993 until 2003, staged a solo exhibition of F鰎g’s work. The following year the Stedelijk exhibited his Italienbilder, photographs that were a gift to the museum from the artist.

G黱ther F鰎g
G黱ther F鰎g was born in 1952 in F黶sen im Allg鋟, Germany. From 1973 to 1979 he studied under Karl Fred Dahmen at the Akademie der Bildenden K黱ste M黱chen. In 1980 he held his first solo exhibition at Galerie R黡iger Sch鰐tle in Munich. F鰎g was invited to take part in Documenta IX in Kassel in 1992. From 1992 to 1999 he taught at the Staatliche Hochschule f黵 Gestaltung Karlsruhe. In 1996 F鰎g was the recipient of the Wolfgang-Hahn-Preis. He was professor at the Akademie der Bildenden K黱ste M黱chen from 1999 to 2013. F鰎g died in Freiburg, Germany, at the age of 61.