curated by Christine Macel and presented by the gallery :

PETER FREEMAN INC

140 Grand Street (Ground Floor, between Crosby and Lafayette) New York, New York 10013

T: +1 212 966 5154 F: +1 212 966 5349 e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

Palacio de Velázquez Parque del Buen Retiro, 28001 Madrid, Spain

Tel. (+34) 91 774 1000 Fax. (+34) 91 774 1056 Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

6 April > 10 September, 2017

Through the production of participatory objects, fabric sculptures and his own body, Franz Erhard Walther (Fulda, Germany, 1939) expands the definition of art and its relationship to viewers. For the artist, art bears an immaterial and performative character, manifested in the spectator’s individual, physical and mental commitment when he or she comes before artworks.
This exhibition welcomes a selection representing his early series Handlungsstücke (Action Pieces), from the 1960s, which Walther regarded not as a set of performances, but as “demonstrations of work”, where the body, space and time become sculptural materials. These works also include the noteworthy 1. Werksatz (First Work Set, 1963–1969), displayed for the first time at Documenta 5, Kassel (1972), wherein the artist explores many of the ideas that would become pivotal in his later work, such as the relationship between materials and action, viewer and object. The monumental pieces Wandformationen (Wall Formations, 1969–1985) and his installation Das neue Alphabet (The New Alphabet, 1990–1996), which also feature in the exhibition, are a case in point.
The selection is concluded by works on paper from his early period, for instance the series Wortbilder (Word Pictures, late 1950s), in addition to historical photographs and videos.
Moreover, during the show Walther and various actors, under the artist’s instruction, will activate some of his “action pieces”.

mpefm SPAIN art press release