Presenting more than 100 sculptures, paintings, drawings and edition works, this is the most comprehensive retrospective to date on the American artist Richard Artschwager (1923–2013). It is an exploration of his work that consistently focuses on questions regarding the visual and physical preoccupation with the world.

Artschwager’s work is associated with Pop, Minimalism and Conceptual Art, and combines elements of all three. After studying chemistry and mathematics, Artschwager became a carpenter, designing and making furniture in New York. He continued his interest in commercial and industrial materials such as Formica or Celotex, which he used to blur categorical distinctions between pictures, sculptures and functional objects as well as to draw attention to the unnoticed physical space, confounding our sense of what is real. An example for both aspects is Description of Table (1965), a cubic structure consisting of melamine laminate on plywood. With its black, white and brown-grained areas it indicates a table with four legs and a white tablecloth, but it can’t be used as such: The black areas simulate the space "below" a table, which doesn’t really exist. With these "useless objects," Artschwager aimed to point out our diffuse perception of the world around us; the viewer is forced into encounters that are not only visual but also physical. His works emphasize the unfamiliarity of the familiar and explore current societal values. Both Double Dinner (1988) and Lunch for Two (2007) depict a dining-room set – once as a sculpture, once as a painting – suggesting a view of everyday life in consumer America as an alienating, uncomfortable form of existence in which each figure appears strangely isolated. 

Artschwager's paintings appear mostly in shades of gray and characterized by an uneven line structure that covers the whole picture, dissolving the shape of faces, bodies and objects equally. After 2003, Artschwager began ambitious experiments with color. His latest works are saturated with colors of a brilliance and intensity never before seen in the artist’s oeuvre.

This exhibition was organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, in association with the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven. The Munich presentation is organized in collaboration with Haus der Kunst, Munich.

Thanks to the Dr. Karl Wamsler Foundation as well as to Gagosian Gallery, New York,
and Sprüth Magers Berlin London for additional support of the presentation in Munich.

Richard Artschwager, Intallation view Haus der Kunst, 2013 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013 Photo: Wilfried Petzi
Richard Artschwager, Intallation view Haus der Kunst, 2013 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013 Photo: Wilfried Petzi
Richard Artschwager, Intallation view Haus der Kunst, 2013 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013 Photo: Wilfried Petzi
Richard Artschwager, Intallation view Haus der Kunst, 2013 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013 Photo: Wilfried Petzi
Richard Artschwager, Intallation view Haus der Kunst, 2013 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013 Photo: Wilfried Petzi
Richard Artschwager, Intallation view Haus der Kunst, 2013 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013 Photo: Wilfried Petzi
Richard Artschwager, Intallation view Haus der Kunst, 2013 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013 Photo: Wilfried Petzi
Richard Artschwager, Intallation view Haus der Kunst, 2013 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013 Photo: Wilfried Petzi
Richard Artschwager Self-Portrait, 2003 Acrylic and brush bristles on Celotex with plastic frame 24 1/8 x 25 1/8 x 2 in. Collection of Milton and Sheila Fine © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013
Richard Artschwager Self-Portrait, 2003 Acrylic and brush bristles on Celotex with plastic frame 24 1/8 x 25 1/8 x 2 in. Collection of Milton and Sheila Fine © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013
Richard Artschwager Portrait II, 1963 Formica on wood 68 x 26 x 13 in. (172.7 x 66 x 33 cm) Yale University Art Gallery, Promised Gift of Anna Marie and Robert F. Shapiro, B.A. 1956 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013
Richard Artschwager Portrait II, 1963 Formica on wood 68 x 26 x 13 in. (172.7 x 66 x 33 cm) Yale University Art Gallery, Promised Gift of Anna Marie and Robert F. Shapiro, B.A. 1956 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013
Richard Artschwager Locations, 1969 Formica on wood; and five blps made of wood; glass; Plexiglas; mirror; and rubberized horsehair, with Formica Dimensions variable Edition no. 84/90, Published by Brooke Alexander Editions and Castelli Graphics Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Dorothea L. Leonhardt Foundation, Inc. 94.52a–f © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013 Photograph by James Dee; courtesy Brooke Alexander, Inc.
Richard Artschwager Locations, 1969 Formica on wood; and five blps made of wood; glass; Plexiglas; mirror; and rubberized horsehair, with Formica Dimensions variable Edition no. 84/90, Published by Brooke Alexander Editions and Castelli Graphics Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Dorothea L. Leonhardt Foundation, Inc. 94.52a–f © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013 Photograph by James Dee; courtesy Brooke Alexander, Inc.
Richard Artschwager Description of Table, 1964 Melamine laminate on plywood 26 1/8 x 31 7/8 x 31 7/8 in. (66.4 x 81 x 81 cm) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of the Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation, Inc. 66.48 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013 Photo: © 2000 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Photograph by Steven Sloman
Richard Artschwager Description of Table, 1964 Melamine laminate on plywood 26 1/8 x 31 7/8 x 31 7/8 in. (66.4 x 81 x 81 cm) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of the Howard and Jean Lipman Foundation, Inc. 66.48 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013 Photo: © 2000 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Photograph by Steven Sloman
Richard Artschwager Destruction III, 1972 Acrylic on Celotex with metal frame 74 x 88 in. (188 x 223.5 cm) Stefan T. Edlis Collection © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013 Photo: Courtesy Mary Boone Gallery, New York
Richard Artschwager Destruction III, 1972 Acrylic on Celotex with metal frame 74 x 88 in. (188 x 223.5 cm) Stefan T. Edlis Collection © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013 Photo: Courtesy Mary Boone Gallery, New York
Richard Artschwager Sitting and Not, 1992 Acrylic and Formica on Celotex with painted wood frame 75 x 59 in. (190.5 x 149.9 cm) Collection of Harriet and Larry Weiss © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013 Photo: Adam Reich
Richard Artschwager Sitting and Not, 1992 Acrylic and Formica on Celotex with painted wood frame 75 x 59 in. (190.5 x 149.9 cm) Collection of Harriet and Larry Weiss © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013 Photo: Adam Reich
Richard Artschwager In the Driver's Seat, 2008 Oil pastel on paper 25 x 38 in. (63.5 x 96.5 cm) David Nolan Gallery © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013
Richard Artschwager In the Driver's Seat, 2008 Oil pastel on paper 25 x 38 in. (63.5 x 96.5 cm) David Nolan Gallery © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013
Richard Artschwager Journal II, 1991 Formica and acrylic on wood Two panels: 56 x 172 in. (142.2 x 436.9 cm) left; 80 x 51 in. (203.2 x 129.5 cm) right Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Elvehjem Museum of Art General, Juli Plant Grainger, Walter J. and Cecille Hunt, John S. Lord, Cyril W. Nave, F.J. Sensenbrenner, and Earl O. Vits Endowment Funds purchase, 1991.135a-d © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013
Richard Artschwager Journal II, 1991 Formica and acrylic on wood Two panels: 56 x 172 in. (142.2 x 436.9 cm) left; 80 x 51 in. (203.2 x 129.5 cm) right Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Elvehjem Museum of Art General, Juli Plant Grainger, Walter J. and Cecille Hunt, John S. Lord, Cyril W. Nave, F.J. Sensenbrenner, and Earl O. Vits Endowment Funds purchase, 1991.135a-d © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013
Richard Artschwager Exclamation Point (Chartreuse), 2008 Plastic bristles on a mahogany core painted with latex 65 x 22 x 22 in. (165.1 x 55.9 x 55.9 cm) Gagosian Gallery, New York © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013 Photo: Robert McKeever
Richard Artschwager Exclamation Point (Chartreuse), 2008 Plastic bristles on a mahogany core painted with latex 65 x 22 x 22 in. (165.1 x 55.9 x 55.9 cm) Gagosian Gallery, New York © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013 Photo: Robert McKeever
Richard Artschwager Table (Somewhat), 2007 Formica on wood 30 1/8 x 43 1/2 x 52 in. (76.5 x 110.5 x 132.1 cm) Collection of Linda and Bob Gersh © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013
Richard Artschwager Table (Somewhat), 2007 Formica on wood 30 1/8 x 43 1/2 x 52 in. (76.5 x 110.5 x 132.1 cm) Collection of Linda and Bob Gersh © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2013