Seeing Not Nothing, but Nothingness

by 
Stephan Huber, Shining, 2001. Foto: Stephan Huber, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021

During Berlin Art Week the Akademie der Künste is showing a comprehensive survey exhibition on the colour white in the visual arts and its various interpretations.

›Nothingtoseeness—Void/White/Silence‹—the Akademie der Künste exhibition which is curated by Anke Hervol and Wulf Herzogenrath takes its title from one of the great stylites of the post-war avant-garde, John Cage, who coined the somewhat unwieldy term »nothingtoseeness« to describe the equivalent of silence in the visual arts. Consequently, the exhibition begins with the years around the middle of the last century and features a broad range of works—from experiments by artists like Ellsworth Kelly, Yves Klein, and Ulrich Erben to contemporary artworks by Rosa Barba, Isaac Julien, Qiu Shihua, and Christina Kubisch, to name a few. Equally broad is the range of interpretations: from silence and emptiness to white as a colour of mourning, from the radical new beginning of an empty canvas to current questions of postcolonial critique. A small selection of featured artworks is on view here.

Rutherford Chang, We Buy White Albums, 2013—ongoing. © Rutherford Chang

Sara Masüger, Rijksmuseum 8th of October, 2003. Foto: Sara Masüger
Yves Klein, 1961, Museum Haus Lange, Foto: Bernward Wember. © The Estate of Yves Klein c/o ADAGP, Paris
Jan J. Schoonhoven, R 74-16, 1974, Privatsammlung Berlin. Fotograf: Eric Jobs, Hattingen. © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021

Sara Masüger, Rijksmuseum 8th of October, 2003. Foto: Sara Masüger
Christina Kubisch, Analysing silence, work in progress, Sonagramme des Wortes Stille in verschiedenen Sprachen. © Christina Kubisch / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021
Robert Ryman, Untitled, 1971, Privatsammlung Berlin. Fotograf: Eric Jobs, Hattingen, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021

Timm Ulrichs, Die weißen Flecken meiner Körper-Landschaft. Kenn-Zeichnung der mir niemals direkt sichtbaren Bereiche meines Körpers (Brust und Rückenaufnahme), 1968. Foto: Marli + Bert Schell, Wiesbaden, © Timm Ulrichs / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021
Katharina Fritsch, Doktor, 1999. Foto: Nic Tenwiggenhorn, Düsseldorf, © Katharina Fritsch / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021

Karin Sander, Wandstück, 1992, Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, permanente Installation. Foto: Werner Hannappel, © Karin Sander, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2021
Karin Sander, Wandstück, 2004, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Ausstellungsansicht. Foto: Karin Sander, © Karin Sander, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2021
Raimund Kummer, Typus Morbus Purtcher – Leefilter 209, 3 Neutral Density, 2020. © Raimund Kummer / VG Bild-Kunst Bonn 2021

Ellsworth Kelly, Two Whites, 1959. © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation
Stephan Huber, Shining, 2001. Foto: Stephan Huber, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021

AKADEMIE DER KÜNSTE
Nothingtoseeness—Void/White/Stilence
15 SEP—12 DEC 2021
Opening 15 SEP, 11am—midnight

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