Press release March 4, 2019
Susannah Martin JUST NATURE March 17 to May 26, 2019 at the Kunstforum of the TU Darmstadt
Press Tour: Wednesday, March 13, 2019 11 am Vernissage: Saturday, March 16, 2019 6 pm
For the first time, the exhibition JUST NATURE pays tribute in large part to the painterly work of the US artist Susannah Martin in the Rhine-Main region.
“Art is never chaste.” (Pablo Picasso)
The exhibition JUST NATURE in the spring of 2019 will deal with concepts of freedom that are reflected in the relationship between man and nature.
Which images of nature are prevalent in contemporary culture and how is the human body represented in the landscape? The exhibition JUST NATURE in the Kunstforum of the TU Darmstadt compares the predominantly digital life with the question of the relationship between man and nature and enquires into possible social utopias beyond the Internet and the virtual world.
In our exhibition LOST IN TRANSITION at the Kunstforum TU DArmstadt – From Fugitive, Ephemeral (September 24 to December 10, 2017), the American artist William Lamson´s video work “In the roaring garden” discusses the thoughts of the transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862 ). Thoreau described the question of the possibility of a simple life in nature, a remarkably current theme, in his 1854 published book “ Walden-Or Life in the Woods”. These suggestions are taken up in JUST NATURE.
The exhibition, curated by Julia Reichelt, focuses on the work of the American artist Susannah Martin (* 1964, New York). Her paintings, which are dedicated to the classic theme of ” the Nude in Landscape”, are not only surprising due to complex allusions. Known motifs can be found in it as well as certain periods of art history, such as the painting “Déjeuner sur l Herbe” (The breakfast in the open) by Éduard Manet (1863) or the period of the “ Lebensreform” movement around 1900.
Susannah Martin finds a completely unique pictorial language to represent the relationship of the nude in nature. For her, the exposed human being, devoid of any social indicators, is a symbol of the human being par excellence. In its relation to nature, the antagonistic gap between the natural and the natural state and the human being as a consumer or cultural being is reflected: “I am interested in exploring the nature of our enslavement to our own cultural creations and our psychic battle for liberation from these addictions ” (Susannah Martin)
Supporting Program Public Guided Tours Thursday, March 21, 2019, 6 pm also an introduction for interested teachers of all school types and Sunday, April 28, 2019, 5 pm
Reading Wednesday, May 22, 2019, 8 pm Cheating: Margarete Stokowski – The Downfall of the Patriarchate Moderation: Lisa Hille, Wilhelm Köhler Hall of the TU Darmstadt (next to the TU Kunstforum) – in cooperation with the Festival Sex @ TheCity
Conversation with the artist Thursday, May 23, 2019, 6 pm Susannah Martin in conversation with Julia Reichelt Lecture Sunday, May 26, 2019, 5 pm – Finissage – “ Lebensreform heute?! “ (Prof. Kai Buchholz, h_da Darmstadt) followed by a short tour and aperitif.
Pictures of the exhibition Available for download at bit.ly/2GtsTl7 Susannah Martin JUST NATURE March 17 to May 26, 2019 at the Kunstforum of the TU Darmstadt Hochschulstr.1, 64289 Darmstadt Opening hours of the exhibition Wednesday to Sunday, 1 to 6 pm
More information at www.tu-darmstadt.de/kunstforum . This exhibition is part of the Sex @ TheCity festival
