The Body Within Abstraction

Featuring works by Heidi Bucher, Eva Fàbregas, Kimsooja, Dóra Maurer, Bruce Nauman, Steven Parrino, Chiharu Shiota and Franz West.

In the constructivist and concrete movements of modern art, the human body was largely excluded as a subject and as an element of artistic production. The focus was, as postulated by Theo van Doesburg in 1930, on the autonomy of the pictorial elements of line, colour and surface. Figurative representations, by contrast, were dismissed as illusionistic and speculative. This rational approach, devoted to the intellect, mathematics and systematics, turned its back decisively on any consideration of the body itself.

The international group exhibition THE BODY WITHIN ABSTRACTION subjects the entrenched interpretation—that rational, non-objective art is devoid of any bodily references—to a delightfully critical examination. It presents – including works by Heidi Bucher, Kimsooja, Dora Maurer, Bruce Nauman, Steven Parrino and Chiharu Shiota – examples of how the body becomes both a formal prerequisite and a thematic foundation for minimalistically reduced and non-figurative works. The group exhibition focuses on the question of how much of the body is contained in non-representational works as a unit of measurement, a model or a structuring element.

For the first time since the move to the Löwenbräukunst site, all the new exhibition spaces at Museum Haus Konstruktiv – in both the east and west wings – will be used in a joint presentation.

With this exhibition featuring a distinguished line-up, the Museum Haus Konstruktiv celebrates its 40th anniversary. With works by Heidi Bucher, Eva Fàbregas, Kimsooja, Dóra Maurer, Bruce Nauman, Steven Parrino, Chiharu Shiota and Franz West.