Peter Downsbrough

Art From Language

Room and wall pieces, photography.

28. November 1998 – 17. January 1999
Introduction:  Guy Schraenen, Paris.

Peter Downsborough (born 1940, New York, USA) has installed four purposely-designed works in the Kunstverein:  rods and lines that contain figures, words that do not form sentences.  The exhibition also contained seven black and white photographs.

The artist also created an outline sculpture on the façade of the Kunstverein.  Three dark metal rods, upon which words are mounted, represent a tangible interpretation of vertical and horizontal and both accentuate and organize space.  The words "from," "and," "to," and "art club" mark the limits of the Kunstverein's private space and articulate the transition into the public space of the city.  Downsborough, one of the major figures of the New York art scene during the 1970s, creates work that can be defined as visually abstract.  His pieces frequently consist of lines, cuts, and spaces and calls the linearity of both space and language into question.  Be it wall or room pieces, photographs, postcards, prints, models, books, or public artworks, Downsborough's aforementioned themes are ever-present. (Translation: Taylor Champoux, Markus Pfeifer)

An artist's book has been published in coordination with the exhibition.

The exhibition is sponsored by the city of Neuenhaus and the state of Lower Saxony.