Daniel Spoerri at Karma International

Artist: Daniel Spoerri

Venue: Karma International, Zurich, Switzerland

Date: September 30 – November 13, 2022

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Karma International, Zurich

Karma International is happy to present the first solo show of Daniel Spoerri at the gallery.

Born as Daniel Isaac Feinstein in 1930 in Galati, Romania, Spoerri grew up in Switzerland and currently lives and works in Vienna. His career started in the 1950s as a ballet dancer in Bern, after which he moved on to creating art and became one of the founding members of the Nouveau Réalisme. Today he is best known for his ‘snare-pictures’ (Fallenbilder), a type of assemblage where he suspends objects in time – for example, the aftermath of a meal including plates, silverware, glasses, food leftovers and cigarette ashes – which are affixed to a table and then hung on a wall.

The show comprises works from as early as 1964, including ones exhibited in Spoerri’s acclaimed retrospective at Centre Pompidou, Paris (1990). One such work is as a large-scale diptych entitled ‘La Trottinette’, 1975. In this assemblage several types of shoes, an old-fashioned prostate leg, a torso with a crutch and a wooden trottinette are all glued on three gate-like wooden boards.

The show additionally features a number of Spoerri’s ‘Orakelbilder’, assemblages of embroidery on pieces of cloth that show Spoerri’s affinity to poetry and puns. Several new works that were previously exhibited at ‘Kunststaulager Spoerri’, a museum that the artist opened in 2009 in Hadersdorf am Kamp (Austria), are also on display.

Solo exhibitions include MAMAC, Nice; FRAC Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse; MOCAK – Museum fur̈ Gegenwartskunst, Krakau; Ludwig Museum, Vienna; Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest; Kasseler Kunstverein, Kassel; Kunsthaus Wien, Vienna; Centre Pompidou – Museé National d Art́ Moderne, Paris.

Group exhibition include Kunsthalle Vienna; Museum fur̈ Angewandte Kunst (MAK), Vienna; Nouveau

Museé National de Monaco, Monaco; De Vleeshal, Modelburg;̈ MOCA – Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL; Haus kunstruktiv, Zurich; Museum fur̈ Gegenwart, Berlin; MoMA – Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY.

Daniel Spoerri, 2022, exhibition view, Karma International, Zurich, Courtesy of the artist and Karma International, Zurich, Photo: ©Annik Wetter

Daniel Spoerri, Onhe Titel (Background Landscapes Series), 2010, Assemblage, 71.5 x 91.5 x 40 cm, 28 1/8 x 36 x 15 3/4 in, Courtesy of the artist and Karma International, Zurich, Photo: ©Isabel Rotzler

Daniel Spoerri, Ohne Titel (Schwarze Serie, “mit Sonnenblumen”), 2021, Assemblage, 84.5 x 84.5 x 20 cm, 33 1/4 x 33 1/4 x 7 7/8 in, Courtesy of the artist and Karma International, Zurich, Photo: ©Isabel Rotzler

Daniel Spoerri, Canibalen Totenesser Totempfahl mit Michelin Männchen, 1986, Assemblage, 197 x 56 x 56 cm, 77 1/2 x 22 x 22 in, Courtesy of the artist and Karma International, Zurich, Photo: ©Isabel Rotzler

Daniel Spoerri, Collection de souliers (les trois ages), 1982, Assemblage, 130 x 270 x 30 cm, 51 1/8 x 106 1/4 x 11 3/4 in, Courtesy of the artist and Karma International, Zurich, Photo: ©Isabel Rotzler

Daniel Spoerri, Die Triebstruktur des Geldes, 1981, Assemblage, 57 x 57 x 36 cm, 22 1/2 x 22 1/2 x 14 1/8 in, Courtesy of the artist and Karma International, Zurich, Photo: ©Isabel Rotzler

Daniel Spoerri, Pferdekopf mit Pferdefuss, 1990, Assemblage, 118 x 69 x 72 cm, 46 1/2 x 27 1/8 x 28 3/8 in, Courtesy of the artist and Karma International, Zurich, Photo: ©Isabel Rotzler

Daniel Spoerri, La chemise ouverte sur une peinture de A. Varlet (Die offene Bluse), 1998, Détrompe l’oeil, Assemblage, 56 x 41 x 26 cm, 22 x 16 1/8 x 10 1/4 in, Courtesy of the artist and Karma International, Zurich, Photo: ©Isabel Rotzler

Daniel Spoerri, Reliefs de table, 1978, Tableau Piège, Assemblage, 81 x 200 x 47 cm, 31 7/8 x 78 3/4 x 18 1/2 in, Courtesy of the artist and Karma International, Zurich, Photo: ©Isabel Rotzler