Charlotte Posenenske Libros

The catalogue traces the evolution of Posenenske’s practice from early experiments with mark making to transitional aluminum wall reliefs to industrially fabricated modular sculptures, which are produced in unlimited series and assembled or arranged by consumers at will. Posenenske exhibited widely during the brief period [1956–68] that she was active as an artist, alongside peers such as Hanne Darboven, Donald Judd, and Sol LeWitt. Her work is distinguished by its radically open-ended nature: she used permutation and contingency as playful conceptual devices to oppose compositional hierarchy and invite the public to collaborate by reconfiguring her variable sculptures. Embracing reductive geometry, repetition, and industrial fabrication, she developed a form of mass-produced Minimalism that addressed the pressing socioeconomic concerns of the 1960s by circumventing the art market and rejecting established formal and cultural hierarchies. Text: Alexis Lowry, Isabelle Malz, Rita McBride, Jessica Morgan, Charlotte Posenenske, Daniel Spaulding, Catherine Wood

This book, Burkhard Brunn's commentary on the manifesto Charlotte Posenenske wrote in 1968, will help build a deeper understanding of her art. It goes hand in hand with Renate Wiehager's -Charlotte Posenenske,- which devotes particular attention to the artist's objects, and the volume -Charlotte Posenenske--Die fruhen Jahre,- which includes an essay by Philipp Kaiser about the minimalist conceptual artist's paintings. The three volumes lay the foundation for further reflections by experts; Daniel Marzona, Jorg Daur, Astrid Wege, and Stefanie Brauer have contributed essays to this book. Brunn's own expertise derives from his collaboration with the artist and the many posthumous exhibitions he organized as the trustee of her estate.

The interest in the work of Charlotte Posenenske (19301985) aroused by the celebrated rediscovery of her art at documenta 12 focuses promarily on the technoid objects that earned this minimalist conceptual artist her renown with only occasional glances at her paintings seen as preparatory studies. The time has come for a dedicated examination of these works. According to the artist's own statements, her pictures drew inspiration from Cezanne, Mondrian, and El Lissitzky. Her reliefs constitute the seamless transition though she saw it as a clear break to the objects. Which artistic positions may have influenced the early grids, the floating structures, and the impulsiveness with which she flung paint on the canvas in the works she created using a palette knife? In which ways does her art bear similarities to the works of her contemporaries? These are some of the questions Philipp Kaiser's essay begins to address.