A new compilation of Amelie von Wulffen's intriguing, very truth hard drawings and comics.
Amelie von Wulffen's Drawings/Zeichnungen is a fulminant new book featuring works from the last ten years that are being shown here for the first time. They are not primarily intended to be works of art; they differ from her comics and watercolors.
To mark her exhibitions at the Kölner Kunstverein and HFKD Holkstebro, Bierke Verlag is now publishing this collection of very direct and heterogeneous drawings, driven by a need to stay as close to the truth as possible. They deal with dreams and inner experiences, depicting generational conflicts, sexuality, death, and strong emotions with unfiltered harshness.
Since the 1990s, Amelie von Wulffen (born 1966 in Germany) has created a sophisticated and unique oeuvre that enquires into the historic, economic, and social conditions of painting. Highly self-reflexive, von Wulffen's practice expands to include the artist herself. She frequently appears in her own work in different guises, interweaving her family's past with national history and existential questions about a specifically German cultural heritage. Von Wulffen's works purposefully juxtapose aesthetic incongruities and combine different styles of painting from art history and amateur art to re-purpose their associative weight. In that respect, her work reads as a meta-reflection on the aesthetic incongruities of both post-war Germany as well as contemporary popular and political culture. This effect is compounded by the inclusion of references to decorative arts, furniture and architectural elements.
Von Wulffen has shown at major institutions such as Centre Pompidou, Paris; Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Studio Voltaire, London; La Biennale di Venezia, Venice; Manifesta, Donostia-San Sebastian; and Aspen Art Museum, Colorado. Her work is held in the private collections of prestigious institutions such as Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
