artworks by michel nedjar exhibited at the albertina museum, vienna
the beauty of diversity
In its various chapters, this spring exhibition at Albertina Modern develops an aesthetics of the diverse that upends the ideality of classicist stylistic and formal strivings as well as the conception of the human being as one-dimensional, preferring to instead pursue the beauty of the grotesque, impure, and repressed while lending visibility to that which is marginalized, downcast, and divergent from the norm.
The hybrid mixing and recombination of various systems and genders plays as prominent a role here as does the presentation of the marginalized. The inclusion of artists from Australia, Africa, Asia, and South America is a priority in this exhibition and serves to undermine the exclusive character of eurocentric thought and action as well as western art and culture. Autodidacts exemplify a pronounced will to do what one must do, proving their authenticity in how they point out art’s internal necessity. Just as, individuals who probe and transcend boundaries not only call to mind art’s role as an anthropological constant but also—through their divergent modes of existence—exemplify nonconformist ways of living and working.
Artists:
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Eva Beresin, Amoako Boafo, Verena Bretschneider, Cecily Brown, Nyunmiti Burton, Miriam Cahn, Alexandre Diop, Ines Doujak, Jean Dubuffet, Stefanie Erjautz, Jadé Fadojutimi, Gelitin/Gelatin, Aïcha Khorchid, Soli Kiani, Basil Kincaid, Jürgen Klauke, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Elena Koneff, Maria Lassnig, Daniel Lezama, Angelika Loderer, Claudia Märzendorfer, Jonathan Meese, Sungi Mlengeya, Tracey Moffatt, Michel Nedjar, Tony Oursler, Grayson Perry, Marc Quinn, Franz Ringel, George Rouy, Iris Sageder, Cindy Sherman, Sarah Slappey, Kiki Smith, Tal R, VALIE EXPORT, Jannis Varelas, August Walla, Franz West, Kennedy Yanko
He is the most widely exhibited and published living art brut artist, yet the extraordinary trajectory of this Frenchman raises a question that is rarely addressed: that of the impermanence of art brut. Discovered by Jean Dubuffet at a time when he was working on the resurgence of the symbolic body, he allowed himself to become the protean artist we know and who, in his creation, embodies absolute freedom. His work can be found in countless collections, and he was the first artist brut to enter the collections of the Musée national d’art moderne (Pompidou). Exhibited at the Monnaie de Paris, the Albertina Museum and the Mona, Michel Nedjar has been the subject of nine monographic exhibitions.