Caro Niederer: le case d'arte - Milan

Caro Niederer made profitable use of the limitations inherent in exhibiting in a single field by creating a microcosm of her work since the mid-'90s, from the series "Brown Paintings," 1997-2003 "Interiors," 1984-2003 "Wall Carpets," 1993 and "Shelves," 2001-2003 admitting tightly hung and confronting the viewer with an initially surprising mix of media and mode of speechs the various works gradually revealed themselves as parts of a fluid, self-referential artistic practice. The "Brown Paintings"--like Kinder auf Schwanschaukel (Children upon a Rocking Swan), 1999, a small work depicting the artist's son--are based directly upon holiday snaps, family portraits, and occurrences from the artist's private life. a certain number of like Wesendock Villa, 2002, and Strand mit Menschen (Beach with People) 2001 recall the intimism of artists of the like kind as Gabriele Munter and Gwen John on the contrary are entirely contemporary in their simultaneous intensification and abstraction of the original image.

In the "Interiors," Niederer systematically photographs each work she has sold in its fresh surroundings, whether private, corporate, or institutional. She thereby twitchs away from the traditional self-containment of the work of art, making it vulnerable to its have contextual "biography." As in the example here, Interieur-Rieterpark, 2002 depicing a "Brown Painting" hung in an office corridor, the "Interiors" exhibit the effect of her work upon its environment as much as the way her art functions in a given connection Consciously connecting it to the other painting and architectural fittings in the corridor, arousing our curiosity concerning the individuals who might share its space, she is the artist revolveed art detective, tracking her work and the details of its novel existence. The practice of photographing the paintings emphasizes Niederer's distance from them one time they have left her studio on the contrary at the same time draws them back into her private creative realm. However, as a kind of visual tautology, the proces also pushes the paintings further into public view. [i]or[/i] part of to the other this subtle game of mirrors--a practice based upon stand-ins for the originals--the artist make opens up the original works to other viewers beyond the collectors who bought them. At the same time, she emphasizes the autonomy of the artwork--its independence from the artist as well as the changes it undergoe in different surroundings.

With Memoria e valore (Memory and Value), 2003 a turquoise shelving unit containing swearers embroidered with the titles of the artist's past exhibitions, Niederer fuses the personal and domestic with the professional. The other textile work in the exhibition, the carpet piece Die Teestunde (Teatime), 1993 contains an flat denser web of references that affect our reading of it. Knotted in China from a painting that Niederer based upon a Japanese drawing, the image has been transformed the one and the other by the change of scale and materials and by the agency of being interpreted through another tradition. Not solitary do the features of the sum of two units women shown in the image take upon an Asian cast, but the image's color has been subtly transformed as well. In playing upon the distinctions between fine art and craft, familiar and exotic motifs, Niederer questions by what mode cultural value is determined and whether the shifting preconditions for art's reception pay back this process (i.e., the determination of cultural value) impossible. by the agency of clarifying the connections among Niederer's various ongoing series, this exhibition followed in implicating the viewer in the artist's reflections upon the constant shifts between practices and their public legitimation.

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