FRANZ EHRARD WALTHER
ARCHITEKTUR MIT WEICHEM KERN
curated by Marie-Noëlle Farcy
Mudam Luxembourg
Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean
3, Park Dräi Eechelen - Luxembourg-Kirchberg
7 March–31 May 2015
Franz Erhard Walther’s concept of the artwork as such developed
from the late 1950s, at a time when many artists were starting to question the
parameters of art. Traditional forms of art were not capable of expressing
Walther’s artistic aspirations at the time; he found it more interesting to
examine material processes, action and even modes of exhibition as components in
the definition of an artwork.
Thus, according to Walther’s concept, art had
an immaterial, performative character and took place within the individual
physical and mental processes enacted by those encountering particular works.
The role of the artist shifted from being the creator of works with a particular
meaning to becoming the mere facilitator of a conscious and personal
experiencing of aesthetic phenomena.
This practice had already been
adumbrated in early actions such as Versuch, eine Plastik zu sein (Trying to be
a sculpture) (1958), and, after many years in which Walther experimented with a
variety of materials, led finally in 1963 to the discovery of the technique of
sewing, a working method that met Walther’s need for formal rigour. The works he
produced up to 1969 using this technique were to be collected in the so-called
1. Werksatz (First work set). The 58 individual works sewn from sturdy fabric
that comprise the 1. Werksatz, which Walther called “Work pieces” or “Action
pieces,” were for him simply “forms” that prescribed concrete patterns of action
and were reliant on being actually handled by one or several participants for
attaining the character of an artwork, a character that remained bound to the
action itself.
Walther’s 1. Werksatz, which was prepared and accompanied by
countless drawings, of which a selection is shown in the exhibition, is mostly
presented in a kind of “stored form” or as items that can be individually
accessed and must be concretely activated before they take on artwork character.
In 1972, Walther put together 45 so-called Schreitbahnen (Walking bases), a
motif that he was consequently to try out in many variations. In 20
Schreitbahnen (1975–77) or in the Gesang der Schreitsockel (Song of the walking
pedestals, 1975–77), as well as in the various works on the theme Raumformen
(Space forms), which are also presented for activation either in “stored form”
or individually, the focus is on the possibility of their being used, which in
each case would lead to specific experiences in the space.
The fact that an
action taking place only potentially or in the mind can be just as constitutive
of a work as one that is actually performed was already embodied in the action
pieces of 1962–63 and the radical 1. Werksatz. The work-actions and the “stored
form” were always of equal importance. However, with the Wandformationen (Wall
formations), which he produced from 1978, visual and architectural elements that
no longer required physical activation to correspond to his concept of the
artwork took on an increasing importance in his work.
The wall formations
Statt einer Rede (Instead of a speech) (1981), Neuere Geschichte erweitert
(Recent history enlarged) (1981–82) and Die Erinnerung untersockelt (Drei
Zitate) (Memory put on a plinth [Three quotations]) (1983) are all works
tailored to human measure, for each of which Walther saw three different
possible positions for the viewer: “In front, close-up and within.” The active
participation of the viewers increases according to their position, right up to
their entering the work in a kind of “physical reading” that leads to its
activation.
The Wall Formations were followed in Walther’s œuvre by a series
of detailed wall works. In response to criticism of what was seen as a return to
a conventional concept of art, Walther pointed to his enduring interest in
the—only apparently banal—question that had centrally informed all the art of
the 20th century: “What is an artwork?” And with these works based on the
drawings and diagrams of the 1960s, he did indeed examine the aggregate state of
an artwork: while some works intimate participatory possibilities, others, like
Plastischer Text (Plastic text) (1987) and Formantwort 1 / 2 / 3 (Formal answer
1 / 2 / 3) (1989–90) explore the borders of particular genres (picture, relief,
sculpture). Walther interrogated the different meanings they had in stored form
and as a wall arrangement. He examined their spatial references and their
“objectness” and ran through the different emphases of form and colour in a
great number of variations.
Finally, in Raumabnahme BLAU (Hamburger Raum)
(Space mould BLUE [Hamburg piece]) (1997–98) he comprehensively explores the
pictorial quality of the space. The dark-blue reconstruction in fabric of his
Hamburg studio, which is adapted to suit each exhibition venue, encourages the
viewer to re-enact its directly visible process of creation.
The possibility
of putting the created “forms” to use has always been inherent as an essential
characteristic in Walther’s concept of what constitutes an artwork, a concept
that has undergone continual development during his now more than five decades
of artistic activity. Walther, who in this way shared the role of the “artist”
with the viewers/users of his works, also used the processual nature of this
concept to emphasise its open and unfinished quality; or, as he put it in the
title of his 1969 exhibition in the New York Museum of Modern Art: The work can
never be finished.
Franz Erhard Walther was born in 1939 in Fulda, where he
lives and works..
