Reinhard Mucha: Der Mucha—An Initial Suspicion

Reinhard Mucha’s oeuvre, with its redefinition of sculpture, photography, and installation, is considered one of the most important artistic positions from the 1980s to the present. With the exhibition dedicated to the artist, who was born in Düsseldorf in 1950, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen will unite long unseen installations with works from all creative phases at its two venues, K20 and K21, starting on September 3, 2022, thus creating a panorama that spans more than four decades of artistic work.

For the director of the museum, Susanne Gaensheimer, “Reinhard Mucha is one of the internationally most important artists of the 1980s, having contributed significantly to our current conception of sculpture, installation, and conceptual art. With key works from his student days at the Düsseldorf Art Academy in the late 1970s, he fundamentally expanded the conceptual notion of what sculpture is and can be. To this day, his works have lost none of their significance, so that Mucha can thus be described as both a historical and contemporary artist. This major survey exhibition is long overdue and was therefore an essential desideratum for me when I came to Düsseldorf, a city with a lively art scene with numerous important positions since Joseph Beuys. For me, Reinhard Mucha is at the forefront of this. He was the first in line for an inaugural visit when I assumed my position here.”

Der Mucha—An Initial Suspicion is the first major survey exhibition of the Düsseldorf-based artist since the double exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bern and the Kunsthalle Basel in 1987. During his studies at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art from 1975 to 1982, Mucha had already exhibited works that were groundbreaking for the artistic developments of the 1980s and beyond. This applies in particular to the significance of his multifaceted oeuvre in relation to the genre of installation, the institution-critical reflection of the art exhibition industry and the museum, and the handling of material in art, as well as to the awareness of history and the reflection of society. Especially when his works are experienced in context, contemporary and industrial history, as well as echoes of pop culture, are intertwined with the artist’s biography. In this way, Mucha succeeds in weaving together seemingly disparate thematic approaches into complex, meaning-laden structures of high sensual quality.

In addition to the installation Das Deutschlandgerät (The Germany Device) (2002), 1990, which was reconstructed in K21 from 2002 onwards and was originally made for the German Pavilion at the 1990 Venice Biennale, his early seminal work Wartesaal (Waiting Room) (1997), (1986) 1979–1982—which has not been shown publicly since documenta X, 1997—will be on view. Das Figur-Grund Problem in der Architektur des Barock (für dich allein bleibt nur das Grab) (The Figure-Ground Problem in Baroque Architecture (for You Alone There Remains Only the Grave), one of the few remaining larger installations of museum furniture and everyday objects, will be realised anew for the first time since 1985 in K20’s Grabbehalle.

The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive catalog published by Hirmer Verlag. With this book, edited by Susanne Gaensheimer and Falk Wolf, the Kunstsammlung presents the long-awaited monograph on the oeuvre of Reinhard Mucha. In-depth essays by Julian Heynen, Stefanie Kreuzer, Sebastian Egenhofer, Kolja Reichert, and Falk Wolf examine key aspects of Reinhard Mucha’s work from different perspectives. 400 pp., price ca. 39 EUR.

Reinhard Mucha was born in Düsseldorf in 1950 and studied at the Dusseldorf Academy of Art in the class of Klaus Rinke in 1972 and then from 1975 to 1982. Reinhard Mucha lives and works in Dusseldorf. His major exhibitions include: Kunstmuseum Basel (2016), documenta X (1997), Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa), Berlin (1996), DOCUMENTA IX (1992), Das Deutschlandgerät, Venice Biennale, German Pavilion (1990), Nordausgang, Kunsthalle Basel (1987), Kasse beim Fahrer, Kunsthalle Bern (1987), Gladbeck, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1986), Das Figur-Grund Problem in der Architektur des Barock (Für dich allein bleibt nur das Grab), Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart (1985), and Von hier aus—Zwei Monate neue deutsche Kunst in Düsseldorf (1984)

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