Hans-Peter Feldmann at ProjecteSD

Artist: Hans-Peter Feldmann

Exhibition title: Another Art Exhibition

Venue: ProjecteSD, Barcelona, Spain

Date: September 2 – October 16, 2021

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and ProjecteSD, Barcelona

Widely recognised for his conceptual approach to books, photography and other media, Hans-Peter Feldmann, a pioneer of artistic appropriation, bases his work on the collection and re-arrangement of pictures and all sort of objects emanating from our daily lives, in a mixture of ready-made and artistic intervention. Whether playful, sentimental, voyeuristic, kitsch, irreverent or poetic, Hans-Peter Feldmann strips our daily experiences bare. In an intuitive and spontaneous way he explores the world, captures and illuminates the mundane of everyday life, and keeps reinventing himself.

Feldmann has an often-eccentric relationship with art: in 1979 he left the art world and sold thimbles by mail order, run a shop in Düsseldorf, manufactured pewter trains and published artist books. A decade later, he resumed his art right where he had left off. His works are not dated, nor do they have a proper title. They are not signed or numbered. In 2001, on the occasion of his exhibition at the Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona, he published the book 272 pages. The book closed with a list of rejected alternative titles, among which: “Loosers are more interesting”. Feldmann generally entitles his exhibitions “An exhibition of art”, an obvious description which is also a radical statement. This is why his current fourth exhibition at ProjecteSD is entitled simply Another Art Exhibition.

The show reflects on different periods in Hans-Peter Feldmann’s work. It can be seen as a signature show. Feldmann’s in his own and singular cosmos. There are photo collages, photographic series, old paintings, a book, sculptures, objects. Series and single objects selected by the artist from the objects that surround us to draw them to our attention using very simple procedures. Sensitive and witty, full of intelligence and simplicity, they are works that are put together now at ProjecteSD for the first time.

The Aesthetic Studies dates back to the end of the late 80’s. The work is composed of a set of everyday objects in a search for the sublime. Bottle openers, lighters, pushpins, pencils, scissors and other varied pieces of mass production are sardonicall y arranged on museum-style plinths made of industrial cardboard boxes. Repurposing the mundane int o a poetic scene charged with the sacredness of fine art, Hans-Peter Feldmann finds a platform for his curious process of collection and arrangement. The work seems to subvert all notions involved in the art object as an object of desire and a vehicle for prestige.

Two of his celebrated 70’s Time series are shown. Here Feldmann records trivial events in the manner of film stills on rolls of traditional, analogue film of 36 shots. They are dry but poetic series where nothing remarkable takes place: the woman cleaning the window in the building opposite to Feldmann’s apartment (The Window cleaner, 1970), or The Bridge (1974), a series of snapshots of a bridge taken from a car. The invisible flow of time has been detained simply in order to scrutinise it.

The fascination for women emerges in Feldmann’s carefully orchestrated cacophony of works past and present. There are a few examples in the exhibition. Probably the most direct is the photo collage Women Legs, a set of 31 juxtaposed and pinned photographs of female knees. A very good example of Feldmann’s voyeuristic approach not deprived of a certain erotic touch.

The same principle may apply to Telefonbuch (Telephone book, 1980), an artist’s book featuring black-and-white photographs of a young woman talking on the phone inside a telephone booth. An obsolete situation today. One after the other, the practically identical photos follow each other, as do the minutes that pass while we supposedly wait outside. The tripod of Feldmann’s camera is projected onto the booth glass and is reflected on the girl’s mini-skirt, between her legs.

Feldmann began his art career as a painter, but he quickly abandoned the medium, not satisfied with his own technical skill. However, his “paintings” have become the most distinctive works in the decade of the 2000’s. He has become an enthusiastic collector of XIX century paintings that once belonged to the upper middle class. The way he proceeds with these works is very much in keeping with Feldmann’s general modus operandi, wherein his paintings are found material before being altered or “arranged.” Whether making insipid aristocratic portrait subjects cross-eyed or give them a clown nose, Feldmann’s minor changes are subversive alterations of the kind posters or advertising images suffer on the street. Two of the works in the show belong to this category, the Man and Woman with red nose diptych and the portrait of the young woman with smeared lipstick. Fedlmann’s captivation for women here appearing again.

Whether it is a collage of photographs, a set of everyday objects, a tower of hats or an XIXth century painting with a red nose facetiously slapped on it, Hans-Peter Feldmann turns present into past and vice versa. And in doing so, he enjoys looking at the world in his unique way.

Hans-Peter Feldmann (*Hilden, Germany, 1941, lives and works in Düsseldorf).

Feldmann’s work has been exhibited widely. At documenta 5 and documenta 6 (1972, 1976); Portikus, Frankfurt (1989); Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York (1993, 2011); Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1992); Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany (2003); Venice Biennale 2003 and 2005; Contemporary Art gallery, Vancouver, Canada (2006); Hamburger Banhof, Berlin, Germany (2006); Kunsthalle Wien, Austria (2007); Sculptur Project 2007, Munster, Germany; and solo shows at the Sprengel Museum in Hannover, Germany; Arnolfini gallery, Bristol, UK; Landesgalerie, Linz, Austria. (2007-2008); Serpentine Gallery in 2012; Sao Paulo Biennale, 2012; Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (2017); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark (2019), and many other prestigious institutions and art centers. His first solo exhibition in Spain took place at the Fundació Tàpies (2001-2002) curated by Helena Tatay. In 2011, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid) dedicated him a major exhibition entitled Hans Peter Feldmann. “Una exposición de Arte” also curated by Helena Tatay. This same exhibition project was presented in Malmö Konsthall and parasol Unit, London also in 2011.

Hans-Peter Feldmann was the recipient of the 2010 Hugo Boss Award, with an accompanying exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, New York; and more recently the Otazu Foundation Art Prize, Spain (2020).

Feldmann is a prolific producer of artist’s books. His publications have been instrumental in establishing the genre as a recognisable form of artistic practice, influencing generations of artists who have followed him.

Hans-Peter Feldmann, Another Art Exhibition, 2021, exhibition view, ProjecteSD, Barcelona, photo: Robert Ruiz

Hans-Peter Feldmann, Woman with smeared lipstick, n.d. Oil on canvas, altered 53x45x4cm

Hans-Peter Feldmann, Aesthetic Studies, n.d., Set of 15 cardboard plinths with various objects each plinth: 40 x 40 x 80 cm high, Overall dimensions variable