A key figure in the Düsseldorf art scene which formed around Joseph Beuys, and a leading German concept and body artist, Klaus Rinke is now mounting a comprehensive exhibition of his paintings and graphic works for the very first time. On view are some 240 highly diverse works: Over four-metre-high monumental graphite pictures are juxtaposed with small-format studies of the most delicate materiality. The show is being staged as part of the Akademos series, with which the MKM Museum Küppersmühle has since 2002 honoured the professors of the Düsseldorf Academy of Art, where Klaus Rinke taught for 30 years.
Rinke’s extraordinary drawings represent a distillation of his enduring fascination for the true essence of our planet: Its natural forces, geological elements, globality and current imperilment, its dimensions of space and time, mass and gravity or the identity and interaction of man and woman. On view are some 240 works, including many large-format pieces.
Born in Wattenscheid in 1939, Klaus Rinke is a trained poster artist, a pioneer of process art and a frequent documenta and biennial participant. During the run of this exhibition, he will celebrate his 80th birthday. His works have been exhibited worldwide (including solo shows in New York’s MoMA, the Viennese Succession and in Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia) and are featured in renowned German and international collections. The artist lives and works near Linz/Austria and also maintains a studio in Los Angeles.
Curator: Robert Fleck, Vice-Chancellor of the Düsseldorf Academy of Art.
MKM Museum Küppersmühle für Moderne Kunst, Duisburg.
March 29, 2019
