Thomas Grünfeld

Thomas Grünfeld (born June 29, 1956 in Leverkusen ) is a German artist . Since 2004 he has been a professor of sculpture at the Düsseldorf Art Academy . He lives and works in Cologne.

Life

From 1978 to 1983 he studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart (class Paul Uwe Dreyer ).

In 1986 he held his first exhibition in the Tanja Grunert Gallery in Cologne with works that, influenced by Richard Artschwager , oscillate between art objects and apparent usability. Names of English gentlemen's clubs were used as titles .

1990 at the first presentation of his animal preparations (misfits) in the London gallery Karsten Schubert Ltd, animal rights activists provoked a scandal with the associated police action.

In 1997, in the exhibition Déformation Professionnelle at the Kölnischer Kunstverein, he combined two of his work groups ( misfits and rubbers ) with dresses from the summer collection '97 by Rei Kawakubo ( Comme des Garçons ), which deals with the deformation of the woman's body.

In 2008, Grünfeld made his first attempt in the exhibition Thébaïde in the Michael Janssen Gallery / Berlin to unite as many of his groups of works as possible in one exhibition. In 2013, the Museum Morsbroich in Leverkusen is showing the artist's first retrospective, which then went to the Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Villa Croce in Genoa (2014).

plant

His work is characterized by strictly separated groups of works. The best known is that of his animal preparations (misfits) , each composed of different species (since 1990). The other groups of works since 1986: trays, skirts, upholstery, rubbers, dye transfers, eye pictures and felts.

Prizes and awards

• 2015: Prize of the Dieter Krieg Foundation

Exhibitions (selection)

• 1986: Tanja Grunert Gallery, Cologne
• 1989: illumination; Will, Vorstel and Simul in HH (curated by Harald Szeemann ), Deichtorhallen Hamburg
• 1990: misfits I – VII , Karsten Schubert Ltd, London
• 1990: Aperto , Biennale, Venice
• 1992: Humpty Dumpty's Kaleidoscope, A New Generation of German Artists , Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
• 1994: Frankenstein: Exploration in Manipulations and Surrationality , MacDonald Stewart Art Center, Toronto
• 1997: Young German Artists II , Saatchi Gallery, London
• 1997: Déformation Professionnelle , Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne
• 2003: OUTLOOK (curated by Christos M. Joachimides ), Benaki Museum , Athens
• 2008: Thébaïde , Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin
• 2013: Thomas Grünfeld - homey. Works from 1981 to 2013 , Museum Morsbroich , Leverkusen
• 2014: Thomas Grünfeld - homey. Works from 1981 to 2013 , Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Villa Croce, Genoa

Collections

• Barcelona, ​​CAL CEGO Collection (E)
• Düsseldorf, Academy Gallery (D)
• Hamburg, Falckenberg Collection (D)
• Hanover, Sprengel Museum (D)
• Leverkusen, Museum Morsbroich (D)
• Lisbon, Museu Coleccao Berardo (P)
• Louisville, Museum 21Century (USA)
• Metz, Frac Lorraine (F)
• Mexico City, Centro Cultural de Arte Contemporanea (MEX)
• Oiron, Château d'Oiron (F)
• Rotterdam, Caldic Collection (NL)
• Rotterdam, Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum (NL)
• Stuttgart, State Gallery Stuttgart (D)
• Stuttgart, Art Museum (D)
• Stuttgart, LBBW Collection (D)
• Toulouse, Les Abattoirs (F)

literature

• Udo Kittelmann (Ed.): Déformation Professionnelle , Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern 1999, ISBN 3-89322-358-4 .
• Uta Grosenick (Ed.): Art at the Turn of the Millenium , Taschen Verlag, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-8228-7195-8 .
• Erika Költzsch (Ed.): GRÜN FELD FELT , Text: Hans Irrek, Galerie Haas AG, Zurich 2010, ISBN 978-3-033-02534-9 .
• Hidde van Seggelen Gallery (ed.): Young Steerer (young driver) , text: Magnus Mills , London 2011, ISBN 978-0-9555763-2-4
• Donation Wolfgang Kermer : inventory catalog. Municipal Gallery Neunkirchen. [Catalog: Wolfgang Kermer; Nicole Nix-Hauck] Neunkirchen, 2011, ISBN 978-3-941715-07-3 , p. 64
• Galerie Klaus Gerrit Friese (Ed.): About , DruckVerlag Kettler, Bönen 2012, ISBN 978-3-86206-170-9
• Fritz Emslander (Ed.): Thomas Grünfeld - Homey (accompanying exhibition catalog of his first retrospective in the Museum Morsbroich Leverkusen), Verlag Kettler, Bönen (Westphalia) 2013, ISBN 978-3-86206-254-6
• Corbett vs. Dempsey (Ed.): Almanac , Chicago 2015, ISBN 978-0-9963510-4-1

Web links

• Massimo de Carlo, Milano / London / Hong Kong [1]
• Wentrup, Berlin [2]