Paul Thek: In the Context of Today's Contemporary Art

Paul Thek (1933-1988) is considered an artist with cult status whose works belong among the central sources of the highly charged era of social-political awakening and eruption characteristic of the 1960s and 1970s. This, the most comprehensive show to date, comprising over 300 of the artist's works and ranging across all periods of his artistic creativity, is concerned with the phenomenal influence his work continues to exert on contemporary art; thus, the defining mark of Thek's historical significance: from legendary outsider to the central figure of an art movement. Without any pretension to completeness, the contextual selection of contemporary works of art focuses on those works by young artists that, while clearly inspired by Thek's multifaceted creative activity, nevertheless take up and demonstrate independent positions in present-day art production. Participating Artists: Franz Ackermann, Kai Althoff / Robert Elfgen, Cosima von Bonin, Bj?rn Dahlem, Sebastian Hammw?hner / Dani Jakob / Gabriel Vormstein, Rachel Harrison, Axel Heil / John Isaacs, Thomas Hirschhorn, Andreas Hofer, Mike Kelley, Jon Kessler, Suchan Kinoshita, Martin Kippenberger, Jonathan Meese, John Miller, William Pope.L, Gregor Schneider, Zeger Reyers / Lee Ranaldo, Bob & Roberta Smith Special Contributions: Peter Hujar, Edwin Klein Curators: Harald Falckenberg, Sammlung Falckenberg Hamburg, Roland Groenenboom, freelance curator and Thek expert, and Gregor Jansen, ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art Karlsruhe, with special assistance from Axel Heil and Margrit Brehm A monograph by Axel Heil will be published to accompany the exhibition, and in April 2008, an extensive scholarly publication edited by Harald Falckenberg and Peter Weibel.