WHAT
Jointly presented by The Fondation Le Corbusier and Almine Rech, the exhibition is a retrospective of the late renowned German artist (1952-2013) across different mediums throughout his career. Initially interested in monochrome paintings in gray and black, the artist continued his research on modernist themes from a postmodern perspective, progressing to large-format photography in the 1980s, allowing him to capture architectural structures of cultural and political importance. Returning to painting in the late 1980s, he started including new materials such as wood, copper, bronze and lead. His lead series blur the boundaries between painting and sculpture. Finally, his paintings evolved beyond minimalism in the early 2000s, adopting a more vivid palette and expressiveness.

WHY
The exhibition is a rare opportunity to see a large of body of the artist’s works together. Having developed the concept of gray being a neutral base, free from the constraints of figuration, his eventual mastery of colour to create space and form opened up new possibilities. His later works also appropriated older strategies of image-making, presenting them in a new light that was rooted in art history.