Die Sprache der Kunst

Artists: Friedrich Achleitner, Marc Adrian, Laurie Anderson, Giovanni Anselmo, Guillaume Apollinaire, Art & Language (Terry Atkinson, Michael Baldwin, David Bainbridge, Harold Hurell, Mel Ramsden, Hans Arp), Johannes Baader, Giacomo Balla, Robert Barry, Gianfranco Baruchello, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lothar Baumgarten, Jürgen Becker, Joaquin Edwards Bello, Jeff Berner, Joseph Beuys, Erwin Blumenfeld, Georges Braque, George Brecht, André Breton, Marcel Brooodthaers, Günter Brus, James Lee Byars, John Cage, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Carlo Carrà, Jean Cocteau, Jean Crotti, Salvador Dalí, Hanne Darboven, Stuart Davis, Walter De Maria, Steve Ditko, Chérif Defraoui, Silvie Defraoui, Marcel Duchamp, Suzanne Duchamp, François Dufrêne, Nancy Dwyer, Max Ernst, Robert Filiou, Robert lan Finley, Théodore Fraenkel, Frank Gaard, Pjotr Galadschew, Heinz Gappmayr, General Idea (A.A. Bronson, Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal), Jochen Gerz, Paul-Armand Gette, Gilbert&George, Eugen Gominger, Natalja Gontscharowa, Elena Guro and more

The starting point for the exhibition was the observation that, from the mid-1980s onwards, artists once again began to focus on the relationship between image and text, representation and language, after the corresponding positions of Conceptual Art in the late 1960s and 1970s had seemingly been contradicted by the massive return of painting. Reflecting on the works by contemporary artists, Die Sprache der Kunst [The Language of Art] drew parallels with historically significant works from classical modernism to the 1970s. The aim was to provide an exemplary, concise historical overview of the integration of text and image and to show the spectrum of artistic possibilities within this relationship – from the interaction of writing and painting to the visualisation of text and the textualisation of images. With over 500 works, the spectrum of this theme was presented in all existing artistic media.

The exhibition was subsequently shown at the Frankfurter Kunstverein.