Christopher Wool Porto-Köln

http://www.vernissage.tv | Opening reception at Museum Ludwig of the exhibition Christopher Wool: Porto-Köln. Christopher Wool is not only an abstract painter, he is also an explorer of abstraction. In his paintings he brings together figures and the disfigured, drawing and painting, spontaneous impulses and well thought-out ideas. He draws lines on the canvas with a spray gun and then, directly after, wipes them out again with a rag drenched in solvent – to give a new picture in which clear lines have to stand their own against smeared surfaces. Wool's paintings reveal the entire gamut of his techniques. And in his silkscreen prints on paper we once again encounter his interest in abstraction, in the relationship between line and surface. For this, Wool pieces together especially compelling parts from his paintings to make ideal compositions, which he places on equal footing with his canvases. The exhibition traces Wool's recent developments, not least the unmistakable interest he has found in composition and the ways it can be conveyed in such different media as painting, drawing, photography and the print. The main focus of the exhibition is on Wool's abstract paintings and silkscreen prints since 2006. To mark the award to Wool of the Wolfgang Hahn Prize Cologne 2009, the Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst am Museum Ludwig acquires two silkscreen prints on paper. The exhibition, which has been devised in close cooperation with the artist, also celebrates the award of this distinction to Christopher Wool. The exhibition has been organised by Fundação Serralves, Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto, and co-produced by Museum Ludwig, Cologne. Curators: Ulrich Loock, Julia Friedrich.