I'm a Believer
Pop Art and Contemporary Art from the Lenbachhaus and the KiCo Foundation –

"I'm a Believer" combines classic Pop art with contemporary positions. Works by Andy Warhol and Sigmar Polke mark the point of departure for the exhibition’s survey of Pop strategies in the past half-century: artists appropriate the imagery of mass consumerism, offering ironic takes on their society while acknowledging that they themselves are part of the system. "I'm a Believer" also retraces the evolution of painting since the 1960s, from Hannsjörg Voth, Rupprecht Geiger, and Günter Fruhtrunk to Miriam Cahn and the genre's expansion into new media in the work of Michaela Melián.
In Pop Art, the ordinary, the entertaining, and irony conquered high culture. Here was art that was hip to the contemporary moment. Pop Art was the creative expression to match the euphoria of the postwar boom and the prosperous capitalism of the 1950s and 1960s. But it was always also a critical embrace of social and political conditions against which resistance had proven futile. Andy Warhol, for example, harnessed the principles of capitalism—advertising, political agitation, the superficiality of television—to generate ironic distance, producing pictures that have lost none of their popularity. To Pop Art's lasting credit, it spurred museums to shake off the dust of elitist edification; as they demonstrated and still demonstrate, they are far from boring and outmoded.
The Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus mounted a first solo exhibition of Warhol's work early on. And the Lenbachhaus was the scene of the legendary encounter between Warhol and Joseph Beuys. This history is the point of departure for the exhibition "I'm a Believer. Pop Art and contemporary art from the Lenbachhaus and the KiCo Foundation". It opens with classical positions: Andy Warhol, Thomas Bayrle and Ulrike Ottinger. The display then wends its way past Sigmar Polke's German Pop and Stephen Shore's photo graphs of North America’s suburbs to contemporary champions of the popular in visual art such as Hans-Peter Feldmann, Isa Genzken, Judith Hopf, Daniel Man, and Pietro Sanguineti.
Likewise "I'm a Believer" is an affirmation of our commitment to Munich painting of the 1950s and 1960s featuring ensembles of paintings by Hannsjörg Voth, Günter Fruhtrunk, Rupprecht Geiger and Irma Hünerfauth. Existential issues in recent European history are at the center of a series of works in other media: A gallery that Gerhard Richter designed especially for the Lenbachhaus spotlights the limitations of art in general and painting in particular. Birkenau, a cycle of photographs by Richter, probes the question of how to represent the unrepresentable, asking which pictures we have that can help us remember and work through our history. Photographs and video and slide installations by Gerard Byrne, Willie Doherty, and Michaela Melián expand on these questions, connecting the genres and reflections the exhibition explores to major issues of the present.
With works by Thomas Bayrle, Gerard Byrne, Miriam Cahn, Willie Doherty, Walker Evans, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Günter Fruhtrunk, Isa Genzken, Bruno Gironcoli, Judith Hopf, Irma Hünerfauth, Daniel Man, Michaela Melián, Ulrike Ottinger, Helga Paris, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Pietro Sanguineti, Stephen Shore, Hannsjörg Voth, Andy Warhol and Katharina von Werz.
Curated by Eva Huttenlauch und Matthias Mühling
Statements
"Für viele eine echte Überraschung durfte der Künstlerraum von Ulrike Ottinger sein. Die 1942 in Konstanz geborene Filmemacherin schuf in den Sechzigerjahren in Paris ein wenig bekanntes druckgraphisches und malerisches Werk, das zahlreiche Bezüge zur Pop Art aufweist. Mit popkulturellen Zitaten und plakativen Motiven wandte sie sich gegen Sexismus, Gewalt und den Vietnamkrieg. Das Konvolut im Besitz des Lenbachhauses ist eine echte Entdeckung."
"Klassische Pop Art trifft auf Kunst, die sich bis heute mit Populärem beschäftigt; trifft auf Lust an Malerei; trifft auf Positionen, die testen, ob Kunst bestimmte Themen überhaupt darstellen kann."
Video
Works
Andy Warhol
Campbell's Green Pea Soup, 1968
Andy Warhol
Joseph Beuys, 1986
Günter Fruhtrunk
Umkehrende Reihe, 1962/63
Sigmar Polke
Kekse, 1964
Ulrike Ottinger
Aus der Serie "Journée d'un G. I.", Nr. 2, 1967
Günter Fruhtrunk
Kreise von Delaunay / Reihe und Kreise, 1958/59
Gerard Byrne
A country Road, a Tree. Evening. At the Bridge where Lough Bray Lower drains into the Glencree River, Co. Wicklow, 2007
Gerard Byrne
A Country Road, a Tree. Evening. Somewhere between Tonygarrow and Cloon Wood, below Prince Williams Seat, Glencree, Co. Wicklow, 2007
Maria Lassnig
Landmädchen, 2001
Judith Hopf
Untitled (Small Sheep 2), 2013
Judith Hopf
Untitled (Big Sheep 15), 2013
Hans-Peter Feldmann
Laden 1975–2015, 1975 - 2015
Maria Lassnig
Die Sanduhr, 2001
Maria Lassnig
Erniedrigte und Beleidigte, 2002
Maria Lassnig
Mädchen mit Bücherwurm, 2008
Ulrike Ottinger
Bol, 1968
Thomas Bayrle
Agnus Dei, 2012
Ulrike Ottinger
Aus der Serie "Journée d'un G. I.", Nr. 1, 1967
Ulrike Ottinger
Aus der Serie "Journée d'un G. I.", Nr. 4, 1967
Ulrike Ottinger
Aus der Serie "Journée d'un G. I.", Nr. 6, 1967
Ulrike Ottinger
Aus der Serie "Journée d'un G. I.", Nr. 8, 1967
Miriam Cahn
fremd / schmerz, 24.12.14+3.10.16, 2014-2016
Ulrike Ottinger
Bol, 1968
Thomas Bayrle
Carmageddon, 2012
Daniel Man
Eis, Eisbaby, 2018
Isa Genzken
ohne Titel, 2005
Isa Genzken
ohne Titel, 2005
Isa Genzken
Leonardos Katze, 2006
Maria Lassnig
Ehepaar, 2001
Maria Lassnig
Die Braut badet den Bräutigam, 2005
Gerhard Richter
10 Scheiben (WV931-1), 2013
Maria Lassnig
Füße, 1987/89
Amy Sillman
Panorama, Section I of IV, 2015/2016
Amy Sillman
Panorama, Section III of IV, 2015/2016
Amy Sillman
Panorama, Section IV of IV, 2015/2016
Hannsjörg Voth
Ohne Titel, 1972
Günter Fruhtrunk
Rote Vibration, 1968
Sigmar Polke
Streifenbild V, 1968
Sigmar Polke
Hollywood, 1971
Andy Warhol
Neuschwanstein, 1987
Andy Warhol
Lenin (rot), 1986
Andy Warhol
Lenin (schwarz), 1986
Andy Warhol
Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup, 1968
Günter Fruhtrunk
Durchläufe, 1973/76
Gerard Byrne
A Country Road, a Tree. Evening. Beside Knocktree looking towards Crone and Bahana, Glencree, Co. Wicklow, 2007
Maria Lassnig
Mehlspeisenmadonna, 2001/02
Daniel Man
Eis, Eisbaby, 2014
Judith Hopf
Untitled (Small Sheep 9), 2013
Judith Hopf
Untitled (Big Sheep 17) , 2013
Ulrike Ottinger
Dieu de guerre, 1967/1968
Ulrike Ottinger
Aus der Serie "Journée d'un G. I.", Nr. 3, 1967
Ulrike Ottinger
Aus der Serie "Journée d'un G. I.", Nr. 5, 1967
Ulrike Ottinger
Aus der Serie "Journée d'un G. I.", Nr. 7, 1967
Ulrike Ottinger
Aus der Serie "Journée d'un G. I.", Nr. 9, 1967
Thomas Bayrle
Autostrada, 2003
Miriam Cahn
zurückschauen, 21.2.2016, 2016
Ulrike Ottinger
Bol, 1968
Pietro Sanguineti
fake, 2015
Hannsjörg Voth
o.T., 1970
Hannsjörg Voth
o.T., 1970
Hannsjörg Voth
o.T., 1971
Hannsjörg Voth
o.T., 1972
Hannsjörg Voth
o.T., 1972
Hannsjörg Voth
o.T., 1973
Rupprecht Geiger
E 54, 1948
Helga Paris
Mädchen mit Kohl, 1969
Helga Paris
Aus: Müllfahrer, 1974
Helga Paris
Aus: Müllfahrer, 1974
Helga Paris
Aus: Müllfahrer, 1974
Helga Paris
Jungen, Schule, Christburger Straße, 1974
Helga Paris
S-Bahnhof Prenzlauer Allee, 1970er Jahre
Helga Paris
Ramona, Kollwitzstraße, 1982
Helga Paris
Aus: Berliner Kneipen, 1974
Helga Paris
Aus: Berlin, Winsstraße mit Taube, 1970er Jahre
Helga Paris
Frau Köstner, 1974
Helga Paris
Freunde der Familie Schurig, 1976
Helga Paris
Frau Güntherberg, 1982
Helga Paris
Marienburger Straße, 1970er Jahre
Helga Paris
Am Hackeschen Markt, 1982
Miriam Cahn
mare nostrum, 21.04.15, 2015
Irma Hünerfauth
Sternenkomposition, 1960
Irma Hünerfauth
Erster Mai, n. d.
Bruno Gironcoli
Stinkfinger, 1971