Fig: Exhibition views "Du lebst nur keinmal. Uwe Lausen and Heide Stolz. An artist couple of the 1960s", Museum Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz: Photos: Frank Krüger/Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Staging, provocation, breaking taboos, violence - the works of the artist couple Uwe Lausen (1941-1970) and Heide Stolz (1939-1985) have no equivalent in the 1960s. They were created at a time of considerable upheaval and radical change, when a new generation was settling scores with traditional conventions with unprecedented vehemence.
Stolz's photographs and Lausen's canvases and works on paper tell of the role of the individual in the changing social context of the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1960s, but also of close artistic exchange and mutual influence. While Uwe Lausen's early works are still characterised by the expressive-figurative painting of the CoBrA and SPUR groups, from the middle of the decade onwards, under the influence of the emerging English and American Pop Art, he shifts to realistic motifs. In their respective works, Lausen and Stolz seek to uncover and artistically process the contradictions and tensions in post-war West German society and their parents' generation: Saturation, conscious negation of uncomfortable aspects of recent German history, repression of individual, self-responsible action and paralysis of the free development of the individual in a materially saturated environment.
The retrospective takes place on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the death of Uwe Lausen in cooperation with the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Co-curator of the exhibition is Selima Niggl, author of the catalogue raisonné of Uwe Lausen's paintings.
Since the opening in November, it has only been accessible for a few days. Now, finally, the exhibition "Du lebst nur keinmal. Uwe Lausen and Heide Stolz. An Artist Couple of the 1960s" at the Gunzenhauser Museum in Chemnitz can reopen. As one of the main lenders, we are particularly pleased that the exhibition, which is really worth seeing, can be visited again after the long closure due to the pandemic. For those who can't make it to Chemnitz by 4 July, here are a few exhibition insights.
More info on the exhibition here.