Nancy Graves (1939 – 1995) is one of the most important artists of the 20th century. In 1969 she was given her first solo exhibition bay the New York Whitney Museum. Two years later she made her debut in Europe in the Neue Galerie Aachen, where her still world-famous camels found a place among the other exhibits of Hyperrealism.
This is the context in which – to this day – Nancy Graves is perceived to belong by most viewers. But is their evaluation right? Graves’ work is permeated by a diversity of artistic currents. Time and again, she herself also inspired new directions. To show and re-evaluate the artist’s oeuvre in all its subtleness – this was the objective of the curators of the Ludwig Forum. With their Nancy Graves Project, the first comprehensive retrospective of the artist to be staged in Europe since 1971, they present about 70 sculptures, installations, drawings, paintings and films. The main focus is on works created between 1969 and 1979.
A special feature of the Nancy Graves Project is that the curators have invited special guests to help re-evaluate the art-historical importance of Nancy Graves in the context of works by her artistic contemporaries. These guests are expected to include: Eadweard Muybridge, David Smith, Hannah Wilke, Eva Hesse, Paul Thek, Joseph Beuys, Robert Rauschenberg, Trisha Brown, Yvonne Rainer, Nikolaus Lang, Anne and Patrick Poirier and Robert Smithson.
The exhibition is being staged in cooperation with the Nancy Graves Foundation in New York.
A comprehensive catalogue with texts by Walter Grasskamp, Joan Simon, Annette Lagler, Brigitte Franzen, Petra Lange-Berndt and interviews with Chuck Close and Yvonne Rainer, among others, has been published by the publishers Hatje Cantz, German/English, approx. 340 p., approx. 400 illustrations, 21 x 27 cm, cloth, approx. € 39,80 [D], ISBN 978-3-7757-3695-4, August 2013
Curated by: Dr. Brigitte Franzen and Dr. Annette Lagler
Curatorial assistants: Benjamin Dodenhoff, Josephine Mengedoht
Art education: The exhibition Nancy Graves Project & Special Guests will be accompanied by an extensive art education programme. Hands-On Activities will permit active, practical work between art, nature and science. An open-house restoration workshop will demonstrate the problems involved in restoring and conserving Nancy Graves’ works of art. A short guide for children is being published.
Sponsors: Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation), Terra Foundation for American Art, Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation, Kunststiftung NRW (Art Foundation NRW), Nancy Graves Foundation, Verein der Freunde des Ludwig Forum (Friends of the Ludwig Forum)
Media partners: WDR 3, AZ/AN
Nancy Graves Project & Special Guests, Installation Views
Photos: Carl Brunn / Ludwig Forum Aachen
