Exhibition of the year! (Die Welt, May 2012)

Georg Herold’s work (b. 1947) has undergone a transformation since the large retrospective survey ­exhibition held in 2005. The artist has modified the often misunder­stood use of wood or the roof ­batten so considerably that it has become more prominent than ever before: he has never primarily been concerned with the use of ­­so-called povera substances, that is to say, with the notion that art can come about from the use of »simple« materials. The diverse works on canvas with bricks or ­caviar have actually emphatically refuted this interpretation. Although Georg Herold has indeed set traps for the viewer with his ironic titles – because what has to be said »can’t be commmunicated narratively unless you want it to end up being completely boring«, as he himself contests. And so he did in the last years a radical ­alternatively way without being narrative. Out of the roof batten and its simple deployment, its ­immanent possibilities to be the mounting, frame, or place holder, there emerges the essential component of an energetically charged sculpture, as manifested in the ­recent figurative works made ­entirely of battens. Regardless of whether a taut »epidermis« is ever added, i.e. a specially manufac­tured skin, or whether one’s eye unwaveringly fixes upon the ­construction itself, the batten is ­deployed as an artistic medium in its own right. The fact that this constitutes a further important step is also acknowledged by the artist himself: »Beauty was never the goal, rather an attempt to ­develop and implement a technology and suddenly you realise that nice things can be created in this way«. The collectors Mr & Mrs Brandhorst have been collecting Herold’s multiples since 1980.
And now a special exhibition has been set up at the Museum Brandhorst in Munich which, alongside the ­multiples in the collection, will also feature loan works, such as the caviar paintings as well as figur­at­ive works and installations – all of which are illustrated in the comprehensive catalogue.

Exhibition:
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Museum Brandhorst, Munich, 19/4–2/9/2012