Olav Westphalen

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Olav Westphalen (* 1963 in Hamburg ) is a German artist , cartoonist , author and university professor . His works are represented in numerous art museums, including the collections of the Moderna Museet Stockholm, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Center Pompidou in Paris. In German-speaking countries, Westphalen is best known as part of the cartoonist duo Rattelschneck (together with Marcus Weimer).

Life

Westphalen studied at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg until 1990 and with a Fulbright scholarship until 1993 at the University of California with Allan Kaprow . Westphalen had his first solo exhibition in 1995 at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin , which was followed by numerous others around the world. After graduating, Westphalen lived as a freelance artist in New York City ; today he lives and works in Stockholm , where he has been professor of performance art at the Royal Art Academy since 2007 . Since the nineties he has also published cartoons and comics together with Marcus Weimer under the name " Rattelschneck " , mainly in German-language newspapers and magazines (regularly in Die Zeit , the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the satirical magazine Titanic ). With Rattelschneck , Westphalen also published and illustrated numerous books.

Artistic work

Westphalen works and teaches in the fields of sculpture , drawing , cartoon , mixed media , installation and performance . Westphalen's artistic works are often located on the border between serious high art and comic entertainment art and repeatedly address this (supposed) border directly. His work was named accordingly in connection with artists such as Paul McCarthy , Mike Kelley or Chris Burden . Westphalen's works are also directed against ingrained reception habits, especially in relation to the prevailing understanding of comedy and irony . In his performance Bruhaha (1998/99), for example, Westphalen took the stage as a supposed stand-up comedian and repeated the same jokes several times in quick succession, playing the background noise from the previous performance until everything was drowned out in noise. Westphalen advocates the use of comical means in art, which, however, neither act in a one-sidedly satirical - ironic way nor serve themselves too much for mass entertainment or are only perceived as comic within the art business. He advocates "against conventional irony" and thus for an understanding of dry humor in art, the intentions of which can no longer be precisely determined. As examples of this understanding of comedy on the border between high and entertainment culture, he cites, among others, Neil Hamburger , Stephen Prina , the sculptures Franz West , Andy Kaufman , Wes Anderson's films, Olli Dittrich's Improvisationskammerspiele, the music of Daniel Johnstons and Helge Schneider .

Solo exhibitions and performances (selection)

  • 10/2012: Even Steven, The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation, Stockholm (performance)
  • 2012: Flip-Flop Factory, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai
  • 2010: FERCO, Milliken Gallery, Stockholm
  • 2009: Desert Dreams, Moderna Museet / Studion, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 2007: The Disciplines, Brandenburgischer Kunstverein, Potsdam
  • 2007: Desert Dreams and The World Politics Costume Cuddle Party, Zollverein, Essen
  • 2005: Drawings, Hilger Contemporary, Vienna
  • 2003: The First Long Island City Blimp Derby, Sculpture Center, Long Island City, New York
  • 2001: ESUS, Liljewalchs Museum, Stockholm

Awards (selection)

  • 2007: Sondermann Prize for Comic Art at the Frankfurt Book Fair (together with Marcus Weimer)
  • 2007: Artist in Residence at the Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
  • 2006: Artist in Residence at the Office of Contemporary Art, Oslo
  • 2003: Artist in Residence at the Sculpture Center, Queens, New York
  • 2001: Artist in Residence at IASPIS, Stockholm
  • 1999: Working grant for visual arts from the Berlin Cultural Senate | Berlin Cultural Senate
  • 1994: Philip Morris Grant from Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin

Literature about Westphalen (selection)

  • Stefan Germer: Comments on the work of Olav Westphalen's work. In: BE Magazine 2. Künstlerhaus Bethanien. Berlin 1994, pp. 72-76.
  • Saul Anton: Olav Westphalen. In: Artforum International (September 2002), pp. 192–193.

Web links

Article about Westphalen
Interviews

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Saul Anton: Olav Westphalen. In: Artforum International (September 2002), p. 192
  2. ^ A b Olav Westphalen: The Fate of Irony (1): A plea against conventional irony as well as Ders .: Deadpan, the next generation . In: EXOT. Journal for comical literature # 14, Cologne / Berlin 2012, pp. 92-101.
personal data
SURNAME Westphalen, Olav
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rattelschneck
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist, cartoonist, author and university lecturer
DATE OF BIRTH 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg