KP Brehmer

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KP Brehmer , actually: Klaus Peter Brehmer (born September 12, 1938 in Berlin ; † November 16, 1997 in Hamburg ), was a German painter , graphic artist and filmmaker . From 1971 to 1997 he was a full professor at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts . Most of his works can be seen as political art or the visualization of political tendencies.

Life

KP Brehmer was born in Berlin in 1938. His parents were the technical assistant Frank Brehmer and Gertrud Brehmer, his siblings Werner Brehmer and Jürgen Brehmer. After finishing school, he completed an apprenticeship as a chemograph from 1957 to 1959, and in 1959 he made his first etchings . The apprenticeship followed from 1959 to 1961 the study of free graphics at the Werkkunstschule Krefeld with Rolf Sackenheim , a student of Otto Coester . After the first attempts with photographic layers, photo etchings and cliché prints were made in 1961, Brehmer switched to further studies in free graphics at the Düsseldorf Art Academy , where he worked for Otto Coester until 1963. After a one-year stay in Paris in the Stanley William Hayter studio in 1963 as part of a scholarship , he returned to Berlin in 1964, where KP Brehmer devoted himself to the most varied types of printmaking. During this time, folded graphics, reproductions of stamp series, objects and collages, color samples and scales, various film works and demographics (so-called color geographies) were created. In 1986 he was one of the founding members of Galerie Vorsetzen .

In 1971 he was appointed professor at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts and in 1987 and 1988 he was also a visiting professor at the Hangzhou Art Academy ( PR China ).

KP Brehmer was a member of the German Association of Artists .

The work

In the earliest graphic works produced using photomechanical reproduction techniques ( cliché printing , screen printing and offset printing ), “real” objects such as architectural, technical and organic elements were quickly mixed with the abstract motifs.

Influenced by the new art definitions and directions that emerged around 1960, such as Pop Art , but also by the political rebellion of the young generation of the 1960s, Brehmer defined a new formal language that - in opposition to the abstract art of the 1950s - made use of realistic motifs. So around 1963 so-called trivial graphics were created, which were executed as cliché printing (a relief printing technique also known as raster etching or autotype ). Brehmer used "everyday" motifs from advertising and the mass media, such as naked women, cars or space travelers. Ultimately, Brehmer overcame the limited dimensionality of printmaking with the construction of stands and boxes. In addition, in the mid-1960s, Brehmer used a new motif, the postage stamp, which can be defined as an authoritative authority with cultural power of definition. He put these individual graphics together to make album pages or bags.

With his work since the mid-1960s, Brehmer became, along with Konrad Lueg , Sigmar Polke , Gerhard Richter and Wolf Vostell , an important representative of capitalist realism ( capitalist realism ). Today, the works that can be assigned to Capitalist Realism are often assigned to European Pop Art , with the remark of a special - political - stamp.

At the same time, Brehmer tried to democratize art and undermine the commercial structures of art exploitation by means of unlimited or incorrectly declared editions, proofs and special editions.

In the 1970s a new group of works was created - the so-called “diagrammatic works”, in which color samples, maps and statistics were processed. The political character emerged even more strongly. Brehmer dealt with the interpretation and meaning of color as a symbol (color geography, ideal landscape, color samples) and created oversized display boards and maps on fascism (Hitler's speech, 1973), the communist threat (localization of red values, 1972), environmental damage ( Skyline, 1972) and the consequences of war (localization red / pink, 1972 My Lai ).

The best-known work in this group of works is a manipulated flag of Germany (correction of the national colors, 1972), which symbolizes the distribution of wealth in West Germany in three differently sized black, red and gold colored areas and which was raised before Documenta 5 .

From the late 1970s, Brehmer began to paint - in addition to the continued production of graphics and drawings. The motifs are thermographs , sonograms etc. taken from scientific journals . The attempt to scientifically define human feelings and thoughts as quantifiable physical and chemical processes was thematized and critically questioned by Brehmer.

In addition to the graphics, panel paintings and drawings, Brehmer produced numerous films (e.g. Walkings 16 mm, 20 min., B / w, sound; Kleistfilm, 16 mm, 9 min., Color, sound; several documentaries about actions by J. Beuys, C. Moorman, A. Kaprow, A. Koepcke, S. Polke et al.) As well as compositions based on graphic templates (soul and feeling of a worker, 1978; composition No. 3 (in the form of a pointed clover leaf), 1983 et al.)

The visualization of social developments and political tendencies can be described as the “common thread” in KP Brehmer's work.

Solo exhibitions

“ We are currently dependent on the given institutions - art associations, museums, galleries, etc. - to use. This is a certain track that you can use because it still works today. So I think very little of destroying these things - these institutions can be infiltrated. Visual agitation. And that's why I am against people saying: art, painting - is no more. A sharp picture in an exhibition, in a gallery, that can still have a certain effectiveness. “KP Brehmer, 1971

  • 1964: Graphic Cabinet of the Free Gallery, Berlin
  • 1965: Klaus Peter Brehmer: Trivial graphics, Galerie René Block , Berlin (K)
  • 1971: KP Brehmer. Production 1962–1971, Kunstverein Hamburg (K) / Galerie Baecker, Bochum
  • 1972: Galerie Bama, Paris (France) / Galerie René Block, Berlin
  • 1975: Pictures at an Exhibition, René Block Gallery, New York (USA)
  • 1976: KP Brehmer. All prints, Museum Wiesbaden (K)
  • 1977: Time, College of Art, Philadelphia (USA)
  • 1985: KP Brehmer. How the snake sees me How I see the snake , DAAD gallery , Berlin (K), Stadtgalerie, Saarbrücken; Orange office, Munich (K)
  • 1989: KP Brehmer. 30 years of work in art . Trivial graphics, display, boxes, 1959–1970, Galerie Vorsetzen, Hamburg (with Stephan von Huene)
  • 1993: KP Brehmer, Shamanism , Gallery Vorsetzen, Hamburg (with Bogomir Ecker)
  • 1994: KP Brehmer - postage stamps 1966–1972 , Galerie Bernd Slutzky, Frankfurt am Main (K)
  • 1995: KP Brehmer, DG HYP exhibition forum, Hamburg (K)
  • 1998: KP Brehmer - All artists lie , Fridericianum , Kassel (K)
  • 2000: KP Brehmer - The feeling between the fingertips , Galerie Bernd Slutzky, Frankfurt am Main
  • 2004: KP Brehmer - National Values , Municipal Gallery Bietigheim-Bissingen
  • Permanent exhibition since 1998 in the basement of the Hamburger Kunsthalle
  • 2009: KP Brehmer - Milliken Gallery, Stockholm (Sweden)
  • 2011: KP Brehmer - A TEST EXTENDING BEYOND THE ACTION Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo Seville (Spain)
  • 2013: KP Brehmer and the graphic of capitalist realism. New National Gallery , Berlin .
  • 2014: KP Brehmer Real Capital - Production Raven Row , London .
  • 2015: KP Brehmer Apparently abstract art Vorsetzen, Hamburg
  • 2018: KP Brehmer - Art ≠ Propaganda for the 80th birthday. New Museum Nuremberg ; Hamburger Kunsthalle (2018/2019) (under the title Correction of National Colors ) ; subsequently Gemeentemuseum Den Haag (2019); and ARTER , Istanbul (2020)
  • 2018/2019: Brush your teeth twice a day. Gallery Volker Diehl , Berlin

Group exhibitions

“ KP Brehmer wasn't really interested in solo exhibitions. Group exhibitions seemed more interesting to him because of the artistic exchange ”. (Quote from Monika Brehmer)

  • 1964: Neodada, Pop Decollage, Capitalist Realism, Galerie René Block, Berlin
  • 1966: Critical Graphics. Brehmer - Staeck - Vostell , Graficky kabinety, Brno (Czechoslovakia)
  • 1967: Hommage à Lidice , Galerie René Block, Berlin; Spala Galerie, Prague (Czechoslovakia) / New multiple art, Whitechapel Art Gallery , London (Great Britain)
  • 1971: Metamorphosis of the thing. Art and anti-art 1910–1970 , National Gallery, State Museums of Prussian Cultural Heritage, Berlin
  • 1972: documenta 5 . Questioning reality. Imagery today , Kassel
  • 1973: Art in the political struggle. Challenge - Claim - Reality , Kunstverein Hannover
  • 1974: Art in Society. Society into Art , Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (Great Britain)
  • 1975: Contemporary prints , National Gallery, Berlin / Boites, ARC 2, Musée d´Art Moderne de la ville de Paris (France)
  • 1976: Artist print, Leipzig (GDR) / Working Party, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (Great Britain)
  • 1977: documenta 6 in Kassel / 13 ° E. Eleven Artists working in Berlin , Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (Great Britain)
  • 1978: Hermit? Researcher? Social worker? The changed self-image of artists , art association and art house, Hamburg / art from 1960 to today, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin / realists, Kunsthalle Rostock (GDR); Moscow, Russia)
  • 1979: For eyes and ears. From music box to acoustic environment , Akademie der Künste, Berlin / Écouter par les yeux , ARC, Musée d´Art Moderne de la ville de Paris (France) / Cartes de la terre , Center Pompidou, Paris (France)
  • 1984: Towards a Peace Biennial . Hamburg Weeks for Fine Arts 1985, Kunsthaus und Kunstverein, Hamburg
  • 1985: intent 1 , Gallery Vorsetzen, Hamburg
  • 1987: 1961 Berlin art 1987, Museum of Modern Art, New York (USA)
  • 1988: China & The West Calligraphy & Painting Harmony, Art Gallery, Hangzhou (PR China)
  • 1989: Broken Music . Artists´ Recordworks, DAAD Gallery, Berlin; Gemeentemuseum, The Hague (Netherlands); Magasin, Grenoble (Switzerland)
  • 1990: The Readymade Boomerang / 8th Biennale of Sydney (Australia)
  • 1991: Fluxus & Concept-art . Beck Collection, Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen / Transformations , National Gallery of Korea, Seoul (South Korea) / With your head through the wall . Block Collection, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen; Kunsthalle, Nuremberg
  • 1992: KP Brehmer, KH Hödicke, Konrad Lueg, Wolf Vostell, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, graphics of capitalist realism , Galerie Bernd Slutzky, Frankfurt am Main (K)
  • 1993: Mediale Hamburg
  • 1997: PRO LIDICE - 52 artists from Germany, Czech Museum of Fine Arts, Prague (Czech Republic)
  • 1999: Pop Impressions . Europe / USA, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (USA) / EuroPop. A Dialogue with the US , Arken Museum for Moderne Kunst, Copenhagen (Denmark) / Chronos and Kairos . The time in contemporary art, Fridericianum Kassel
  • 2000: The XX. Century. A century of art in Germany . National Gallery Berlin / Hamburger Bahnhof (K)
  • 2002: shopping. 100 years of art and consumption . Kunsthalle Schirn, Frankfurt am Main, Tate Gallery, Liverpool (Great Britain)
  • 2003: Berlin-Moscow. 1950–2000 , Berliner Festspiele / Martin-Gropiusbau Berlin
  • 2004: Moscow-Berlin 1950–2000 . State Historical Museum, Moscow (Russia) / Behind the Facts. Inter functions 1968–75 . Miró Foundation, Barcelona (Spain); Porto (Portugal) / Two and One.Printmaking in Germany 1945–1990 , Kunsthalle zu Kiel / War Media Art . Municipal gallery Bietigheim-Bissingen
  • 2006: Art Salon Belgrade - ART, LIFE & CONFUSION , Belgrade (Serbia) / Eye on europe. Prints, books & multiples 1960 to know , The Museum of Modern Art, New York (USA) / Far West. Four artists between Germany and China , Kunsthaus Hamburg, various stations in China (2007) Shanghai a. a.
  • 2007: FAR WEST , Mingyan Artcenter, Shanghai (PR China)
  • 2008: Europop , Kunsthaus Zürich (Switzerland)
  • 2008: True Romance. Allegories from the Renaissance to today , Kunsthalle Wien, (Austria) Villa Stuck, Munich, Kunsthalle zu Kiel / Europop exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zurich / German Angst , Der Neue Berliner Kunstverein / Art Basel , Galerie Milliken
  • 2009: show the flag? The Germans and their national symbols , House of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany / Quartet - Four Biennials in the Mirror of Graphic Pages , Tanas, Berlin / Works from the Block Collection , Neues Museum in Nuremberg / Pictures at an Exhibition , Edition Block Berlin / Picture Battles - 2000 Years of News from the war , Museum Industriekultur / The Armory Show 2009 , New York, Milliken Gallery / 1968. The great innocence , Kunsthalle Bielefeld / Time as Matter. MACBA Collection. New acquisitions , Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona / Red Thread - A prologue to the 11th International Istanbul Biennale Tanas Berlin / 11th Istanbul Biennale / Art and the Cold War - German positions 1945–1989 , German Historical Museum Berlin
  • 2010: From the origin of the worlds , Künstlerhaus Hamburg eV FRISE / Capitalist Realism. Graphics from the Block Collection , The Feininger Galerie Quedlinburg
  • 2011: model / city / sample / city , Center d'art passerelle Brest (France) / travaille (r) la réalité! Center d'art passerelle Brest (France) / GRAPHICS OF CAPITALIST REALISM , Edition Block Berlin / All I Can See is the Management , Gasworks (London / Great Britain) / 6th MOMENTUM Bienal , Norway / Museum of Affects. In the framework of L'Internationale Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, Slovenia / Belvedere - Why is landscape beautiful? Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck in Remagen
  • 2012: Double Economies - Reading a Photo Archive from the GDR (1967–1990) , Halle14 - Center for Contemporary Art, Leipzig Cotton Spinning Mill / Hungry City. Agriculture in contemporary art , Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien, Berlin / Elevated temperature. Art and climate , Salzburger Kunstverein (Austria) / Abstraction and everyday life , Galerie Nord - Kunstverein Tiergarten, Berlin / Capitalist Realism, Early prints of KP Brehmer, Karl Horst Hödicke, Konrad Lueg, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Wolf Vostell , Kunsthal 44 Møen / Pi - π metamorphoses of the circle , Landdrotei Pinneberg
  • 2013: 55th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale , Venice (Italy) Biennale di Venezia (labiennale.org)
  • 2014: Playtime , Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus , Munich / GERMAN POP Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (Main)
  • 2015: Office Space Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (USA) / Adventures of the Black Square Whitechapel, London (GB)

literature

  • Réné Block: Graphic of Capitalist Realism. 2 volumes. Berlin 1971/1974.
  • KP Brehmer: How the snake sees me ... Exhibition catalog, Daad Gallery, Berlin 1985.
  • Hubertus Butin : KP Brehmer, postage stamps 1966–1972. Exhibition catalog. Galerie Bernd Slutzky, 1994, ISBN 3-9802923-1-2 .
  • KP Brehmer: All artists lie. Exhibition catalog. Fridericianum , Kassel 1998.
  • Björn Egging: From Pop to Politics. Studies on the development of politically active art by KP Brehmers 2004. State and University Library of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. (sub.uni-hamburg.de)
  • Capitalist realism. Graphic from the Block collection. Exhibition catalog. Kerber Verlag, ISBN 978-3-86678-413-0 .
  • SD Sauerbier: World of signs - coding of the trivial. [About the work of KP Brehmer.] = Artist. Critical lexicon of contemporary art. Edition 46, Issue 9, Munich 1999, ISSN  0934-1730 . (18 pages)
  • KP Brehmer: Real Capital Production. Exhibition catalog. Ed. by Doreen Mende and Raven Row . KoenigBooks 2016, ISBN 978-3-96098-065-0 (English)
  • KP Brehmer: Art ≠ Propaganda . Exhibition catalog. KoenigBooks 2018, ISBN 978-3-96098-459-7 (German), ISBN 978-3-96098-460-3 (English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Ordinary members of the German Association of Artists since it was founded in 1903 / Brehmer, KP ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on February 10, 2016) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kuenstlerbund.de
  2. ↑ KP Brehmer in an interview with Werner Rhode. In: Klaus Peter Brehmer, production 1962-1971 , Kunstverein in Hamburg, 1971
  3. ↑ Notice on the exhibition , accessed on August 28, 2014.
  4. ↑ Internet site ravenrow.org
  5. ↑ New Museum website
  6. ↑ Gallery Volker Diehl | KP BREHMER | BRUSHING YOUR TEETH 2 X DAILY. In: DIEHL. Retrieved May 6, 2019 (American English).
personal data
SURNAME Brehmer, KP
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brehmer, Klaus Peter (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, graphic artist and filmmaker
DATE OF BIRTH September 12, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH November 16, 1997
Place of death Hamburg