Within the framework of Berlin Art Week four exhibitions devoted to painting started simultaneously. The partners in this collaboration (Berlinische Galerie, Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, KW Institute for Contemporary Art and Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) chose to focus on the art of painting. The individual locations of the overall project Painting Forever! are to be understood as complementary elements.
The solo exhibition Hügel und Zweifel (Hills and Doubts) by Franz Ackermann at Berlinische Galerie in Berlin (Germany) combines specially developed wall paintings with panel art, photography and painting. Franz Ackermann is today among the most important as well as the most influential painters of the present day. His works can be found in numerous public collection. In 1991 Ackermann received a DAAD stipend and there he began with drawings, which he called Mental Maps. To him, specific methods of creating connecting lines between nodes refer to problematic moments in the so called third world. These issues, in the beginning small-scale sketches, are thematized and in the Berlinische Galerie transmitted to large walls. In the interview Dr. Thomas Köhler talks about the background of the project Panting Forever!, the installations on display, and Franz Ackermann’s work in general. The show runs until March 31, 2014.
Franz Ackermann’s work has been presented in major exhibitions by leading museums and galleries internationally, including solo exhibitions at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Tomio Koyama Gallery (Tokio), Dirimart (Istambul), Galeria Fortes Vilaça (São Paulo), Neugerriemschneider (Berlin), and a group exhibitions including Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea (Turin); Martin-Gropius-Bau (Berlin); Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas); Tirana Biennial; La Biennale de Lyon; The Busan Biennale; La Biennale di Venezia; Bienal de Sao Paulo and 1. Berlin Biennale für Zeitgenössische Kunst.
Franz Ackermann: Hügel und Zweifel at Berlinische Galerie, Berlin (Germany). Interview with Dr. Thomas Köhler (Director of the Berlinische Galerie), September 17, 2013. Video by Frantisek Zachoval.