Don't Look Now

Today, there is a renewed interest in public architecture that harks back to the 1960s. Artists working to commission are making a successful comeback in all spheres of public life, be it in the design of church windows, public office buildings, underground stations or commercial premises. It is therefore high time to devote some attention to the current status of artists charged with designing art for the public arena. The mural paintings of the London-based artist Lothar Gotz are defined by their relationship to the architecture. Using the existing room structure, he sees both the historical architectural associations of a building and the modern, function- ally defined architectural concepts as a formal challenge. Idiosyncratic features and architectural structures are taken up and their geometric principles enhanced by intensive coloration. Each of his mural works says something about the complex interaction of the social and visual arrangements in the place in question. Drawings form an important foundation for Gotz’s murals. Even when they are executed as works in their own right, in many cases they are a kind of sketch for later spatial realizations. Lothar Gotz has been known for his public art projects in Europe for more than ten years. The locations of his site-specific works include the London Underground, Heathrow Airport, the British Ministry of Justice, schools and universities and private homes. In 2010 he was honoured with one of Britain’s most prestigious awards, an Abbey Fellowship at The British School at Rome. The Galerie der Stadt Remscheid defines itself as a place of encounter where national and international exhibitions are staged that reflect on important present and future questions and positions in art, making them visible and anchoring them in the public consciousness. Thanks to the bequest of the stage-set designer Teo Otto, one focus of the gallery is on the relationship between art and the stage. Another recurring theme is the context of urban and architectural space. The venue of the Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven is an important example of post war modernist Architecture and one of the finest examples of it's kind in the Northern part of Germany. MainFocus of this part of the touring show will be on the site specific projects of Lothar Goetz. The exhibition will show about 50 works and give an overview of the different strands of his practice and research. Highlight of the show will be an over 16 m long and 5 m high specially commissioned new wall painting. The Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven is a gallery of contemporary art with a commitment to a broad spectrum of art- ists whose work predominantly straddles the media of architecture and painting, painting and drawing, and sculpture and performance. In addition, the Kunsthal- le’s 1968 building in the tradition of the Bauhaus has a number of unusual spac- es which have already inspired several artists to come up with room-specific installations. Alongside Gereon Krebber, Cecile Hummel, Michael Schmeichel and Clemens Botho Goldbach, Lothar Gotz will convert the main hall into a colour space and thus form a link with his first mural shown in the context of the group exhibition 1968. Architektur in Bewegung (2008), which he realized with the then exposed filigree roof construction of the Kunsthalle in mind. Monographic presentations are also a fo- cus of the Stadtische Galerie Wolfsburg, which functions not only as an exhibition venue, but also as a place of production and experimentation, where new works are developed and realized. In-situ works are commissioned at regular intervals and placed either in the collection or in the public space. Over and above the artistic aspect, all of these projects also have a communicative purpose: Not only does the Stadtische Galerie gain a stron- ger profile in the minds of the local peo- ple, but opportunities are also created both for participation in artistic projects and for a down-to-earth and productive approach to contemporary art. The presentations provide an overview of Gotz’s picture series and public art works, exemplifying his journey as an artist from the sketch via the model to the executed work. The exhibitions are rounded off with newly created mural works in the interior.