310 - GENZKEN, ISA

GENZKEN, ISA 1948 Bad Oldesloe Title: World Receiver "Gold". Technique: Antenna in cast concrete. Dimensions: 9.5 x 10 x 4 cm. Height variable up to 47.5 cm when the antenna is extended. Notation: Titled, signed, and dated on the underside: Gold. Genzken (date illegible). Provenance: - Galerie Karin Bolz, Cologne (according to the consignor) - Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia - A thought-provoking exploration of the (dys)function of communication - Captivating material aesthetics achieved through solid cast concrete - The Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin is dedicating a highly acclaimed retrospective to the artist in 2023 Isa Genzken is one of Germany’s most important female sculptors, who also works in the fields of painting, photography, and printmaking. Since the 1980s, she has participated in group and solo exhibitions worldwide. She took part in Documenta in Kassel in 1982, 1992, and 2002, and represented the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007. Major retrospectives have been held, among others, at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne in 2009, the MoMA in New York in 2013, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 2015. To mark her 75th birthday, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin will dedicate a spectacular retrospective to her in 2023. Genzken received the Wolfgang Hahn Prize in 2002 and the Goslar Kaiserring in 2017. Communication is a central theme in Isa Genzken’s work. This concept encompasses the transmission of information, but also how objects relate to one another and to the space surrounding them. The “Weltempfänger” (World Receivers), one of the artist’s best-known series, convey this artistic concept particularly vividly. These sculptures are cast in concrete and, in their form, evoke radio sets. They follow in the tradition of Bruce Nauman’s “Concrete Tape Recorder Piece” or Wolf Vostell’s “Beton TVs.” Unlike these artists, however, Genzken’s concrete does not encase a functional device. Her “Weltempfänger” are pure concrete sculptures that assert themselves through their material aesthetics and their presence in space. Only the added chrome antennas are reminiscent of a radio’s functionality. The “World Receivers” build on Genzken’s window sculptures. Just as windows are openings—that is, connectors between the interior and exterior—so too are the “World Receivers” the link between transmitter and receiver. However, the function of a transmitter is reduced to absurdity, as this seems inconceivable for a concrete block—or is it? Is the artist using these concrete sculptures to highlight the failure of communication? Or is she suggesting the positive interpretation that communication is always possible, even with these non-functional objects, since it can take place in a wide variety of ways? Estimated shipping costs for this lot: Domestic: 43.70 euros plus 8.30 euros VAT EU: 58.82 euros plus 11.18 euros VAT Third country: 117.65 euros plus 22.35 euros VAT Additional shipping insurance Shipping insurance up to a total invoice amount of 25,000 euros: max. 41.65 euros over a total invoice amount of 25,000 euros: 1.8 per thousand USA: by individual arrangement after the auction. #Isa Genzken #Conceptual Art #Germany #Post-War Art #Communication #Object #Sculptures. In accordance with §26 UrhG (German Copyright Act), VAN HAM is obligated to pay a statutory resale royalty on the sale proceeds of all original works of fine art and photography whose authors have not been deceased for 70 years prior to the end of the calendar year of the sale. The buyer shall contribute 1.5% of the hammer price toward this fee.