Richard Lindner
Fun City
Feb 16th – Apr 20th, 2016
After his early achievements as illustrator Richard Lindner (*1901-†1978) evolves a distinctive visual language that turns him into one of the key pioneers of pop art. In a unique way he succeeds in combining the grotesque-caricatural formal elements of New Objectivity with the vividly colored, collagesque flatness of pop art, thereby oscillating between the cultural worlds of Europe and North America.
Following the major retrospective show of Richard Lindner at the Stiftung Ahlers Pro Arte in Hanover in 2015 this exhibition of works on paper provides a long overdue insight into the graphic oeuvre of the artist. The works demonstrate how meticulously Lindner builds up his compositions before accomplishing his visual research in mostly large-size oil on canvas works. Drawing is the medium for Lindner to play through his observations of a theme. In smooth, diffident strokes he puts his thoughts to the test on various sheets of paper until he finally focuses on one composition emphasizing details (partially in color) and ornamentation and assembling surfaces and shapes in a contrasting manner.
Preferably he chooses the motif of the couple to thematise gender role models as well as the mutual attraction between men and women displaying them in an erotic puzzle. Most notably it is the panorama of New York City’s demimonde and underworld that inspires him to create paintings of psychological alienation, of the vacant pursuit of consumption and social fragmentation. Complemented with a range of watercolors and colored pencil on paper-works the exhibition revives his personal vision of the FUN CITY.
In conjunction with the show a catalogue is publicized at Kerber Publishers with an essay by Belinda Grace Gardner.