Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel

 

Rosemarie Trockel (*1952) is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential conceptual artists in Germany. Her sculptures, collages, ceramics, knitted works, drawings and photographs are noted for their subtle social critique and range of subversive, aesthetic strategies—including the reinterpretation of “feminine” techniques, the ironic shifting of cultural codes, a delight in paradox, and a refusal to conform to the commercial and institutional ideologies of the art system. The Potsdam-based artist has been associated with the gallery since 1982.

 

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Trockel made her mark in the 1980s with a series of machine-knitted wool paintings that superficially mimic the aesthetics of abstract paintings. They are rendered in monochrome or feature rhombic patterns, checks, stripes and classic knitting patterns, but also speech bubbles, trademarks including “Made in Western Germany” or the Woolmark, and logos such as the Playboy bunny or hammer and sickle. Rife with art-historical references, they draw upon Pop, minimalism, Op art and modernist abstraction. Trockel confronted the patriarchal dominance of the art world with a material more evocative of womanly housework than an artistic medium—one that was associated with virtuous diligence and had historically been used to temper women’s imagination and ambitions.

Trockel’s sculptures are characterized by a similar interplay of virtuosic irony, aesthetic-analytical sensitivity and socio-political provocation. One example are Trockel’s iconic hotplate works, for which she transforms the hotplates on electric cookers into wall reliefs, floor objects or sculptures that resemble loudspeakers and record players. The artist’s sculptural oeuvre spans from the so-called Schizo-Pullover (1988), a sweater with two necklines, to Jesus figures whose sex is revealed under a loose loincloth. It also includes a series of “animal homes” that playfully imagine dwellings for animals, going so far as to convert a wig into a House for Lice (1994). The artist has also been designing so-called Moving Walls since the early 2000s, works made of coated aluminum discs that are attached to a wall like moving sequins, transforming the wall into a picture surface that refracts light in various ways. The artist’s objects are almost always defined by a focus on the viewer’s particular physical experience in their perceptive interaction with the artwork. Constantly shifting, they undermine viewers’ understanding of objects so as to generate new, unforeseen meanings.

Trockel’s oeuvre is fueled both materially and conceptually by a constant process of collecting, overwriting and re-ordering. This impulse becomes clearly apparent in her more recent Cluster (2015–present) works, which consist of digitally reconfigured photographs that the artist recombines with idiosyncratic logic to form a kind of visual diary for various exhibitions. Or in her more recent collages, for which she applies various materials to painted wooden frames in an assemblage-like arrangement. Some of these materials quote her own works, a method that allows her to bring her radically open, free and constantly changing creative process to the fore. Trockel regards the artwork as an unstable aggregate of form and concept, deploying this radical instability to dismantle a range of cultural categories, rules and dogmas.

 

Publication

 

 

LEICHTES UNBEHAGEN: VON MENSCHEN UND ANDEREN TIEREN
by Cord Riechelmann
with works by Rosemarie Trockel
Published by Walther König, 2022

Understanding animals as part of society is the central research of the biologist and philosopher Cord Riechelmann. This book focuses on the social life of animals–their communication, emotions and metamorphoses–told in Riechelmann’s characteristic combination of scientifically based essay, social analysis and personal account. Rosemarie Trockel contributed new works to dialogue with the prose, and included selected works from her archive with titles such as The Indifferent One, Hope, Monster Trap, Christmas, Gift, Light Discomfort and others.

Available via the website of the publisher.

Rosemarie Trockel
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Rosemarie Trockel
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LEICHTES UNBEHAGEN: VON MENSCHEN UND ANDEREN TIEREN
by Cord Riechelmann
with works by Rosemarie Trockel
Published by Walther König, 2022

Understanding animals as part of society is the central research of the biologist and philosopher Cord Riechelmann. This book focuses on the social life of animals–their communication, emotions and metamorphoses–told in Riechelmann’s characteristic combination of scientifically based essay, social analysis and personal account. Rosemarie Trockel contributed new works to dialogue with the prose, and included selected works from her archive with titles such as The Indifferent One, Hope, Monster Trap, Christmas, Gift, Light Discomfort and others.

Available via the website of the publisher.

Works
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 1985

Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 1985
Wool (beige/black) on canvas, framed in plexiglass
65.4 × 65.5 × 3 cm | 25 3/4 × 25 7/8 × 1 1/8 inches
69.8 × 68.8 × 7 cm | 27 1/2 × 27 × 2 3/4 inches (framed)

Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel
Challenge, 2023

Rosemarie Trockel
Challenge, 2023
Ceramic, sol-silicate-based paint (light grey)
67 × 67 × 8 cm | 26 3/8 × 26 3/8 × 3 1/8 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel
Shutter 2, 2010

Rosemarie Trockel
Shutter 2, 2010
Ceramic, glazed
95 × 68 × 5 cm | 37 1/2 × 26 3/4 × 2 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel
Destroy, She Said, 2022

Rosemarie Trockel
Destroy, She Said, 2022
Acrylic wool on canvas, framed in plexiglass
40.6 × 40.6 × 2.2 cm | 16 × 16 × 7/8 inches
41.4 × 41.6 × 4 cm | 16 1/4 × 16 3/8 × 1 5/8 inches (framed)

Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel
Vera Falling Apart, 2022

Rosemarie Trockel
Vera Falling Apart, 2022
Acrylic wool on canvas, framed in plexiglass
ca. 40 × 40 × 2 cm | 15 3/4 × 15 3/4 × 7/8 inches
43.5 × 43.5 × 4 cm | 17 1/8 × 17 1/8 × 1 5/8 inches (framed)

Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel
CLUSTER VI: Door Ajar, 2021

Rosemarie Trockel
CLUSTER VI: Door Ajar, 2021
Pigment prints on paper mounted on forex, metal frame
243.6 × 597.2 × 5 cm | 96 × 235 1/8 × 2 inches (framed)

Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel
Ageism, 2005

Rosemarie Trockel
Ageism, 2005
Plaster, steel, plastic, cotton
40 x 60 x 26.4 cm | 15 3/4 x 23 5/8 x 10 3/8 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 2005

Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 2005
Wood, paint, fake hair, fabric, metal, plastic
41 × 31 × 36 cm | 16 1/8 × 12 1/8 × 14 1/8 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel
Wette gegen sich selbst, 2005

Rosemarie Trockel
Wette gegen sich selbst, 2005
Mixed media
14 × 44 × 22 cm | 5 1/2 × 17 1/4 × 8 5/8 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 2002

Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 2002
Wool (patchwork) on canvas
180 × 400 cm | 70 3/4 × 157 1/2 inches
185.5 × 404.5 × 8.6 cm | 73 × 159 1/4 × 3 3/8 inches (framed)

More views
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel
Cage Dorée, 2021

Rosemarie Trockel
Cage Doré, 2021
Ceramic, sol-silicate-based paint, wooden painted frame, plexiglass
60 × 60 × 5 cm | 23 5/8 × 23 5/8 × 2 inches

More views
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel
No Woman No Cry, 2000

Rosemarie Trockel
No Woman No Cry, 2000
40 aluminium plates (Dibond)
333 x 509 cm | 131 x 200 3/8 inches

More views
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel
Replace Me, 1994/2010

Rosemarie Trockel
Replace Me, 1994/2010
Mixed media
68 × 58 × 4.8 cm | 26 3/4 × 22 7/8 × 2 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel
Childless Figure, 1970/2011

Rosemarie Trockel
Childless Figure, 1970/2011
Mixed media
92 × 134 × 4.8 cm | 36 1/8 × 52 3/4 × 2 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel
Golden Brown, 2005

Rosemarie Trockel
Golden Brown, 2005
Wool on canvas, wood
296 × 296 × 7 cm | 116 1/2 x 116 1/2 x 2 3/4 inches

Study for Golden Brown, 2005
Wool on canvas, wood
100 × 100 x 7 cm | 39 3/8 x 39 3/8 x 2 3/4 inches

More views
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 1990

Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 1990
Foam plastic, wool
61.5 × 51.5 × 4.5 cm | 24 1/8 × 20 1/4 × 1 3/4 inches
69.5 × 59.5 × 7 cm | 27 3/8 × 23 3/8 × 2 3/4 inches (framed)

Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel
My Dear Colleagues, 1986

Rosemarie Trockel
My Dear Colleagues, 1986
Wool (red/white), plastics
51 × 40 × 8 cm | 20 × 15 3/4 × 3 1/8 inches
84 × 64 × 12 cm | 33 × 25 1/8 × 4 3/4 inches (framed)

Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel
Replace Me, 2011

Rosemarie Trockel
Replace Me, 2011
Acrystal, steel, wool, plastic, mixed media
80 × 420 × 71 cm | 31 1/2 × 165 3/8 × 28 inches

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Details
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 1985
Wool (beige/black) on canvas, framed in plexiglass
65.4 × 65.5 × 3 cm | 25 3/4 × 25 7/8 × 1 1/8 inches
69.8 × 68.8 × 7 cm | 27 1/2 × 27 × 2 3/4 inches (framed)

Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 1985
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Challenge, 2023
Ceramic, sol-silicate-based paint (light grey)
67 × 67 × 8 cm | 26 3/8 × 26 3/8 × 3 1/8 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Challenge, 2023
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Shutter 2, 2010
Ceramic, glazed
95 × 68 × 5 cm | 37 1/2 × 26 3/4 × 2 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Shutter 2, 2010
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Destroy, She Said, 2022
Acrylic wool on canvas, framed in plexiglass
40.6 × 40.6 × 2.2 cm | 16 × 16 × 7/8 inches
41.4 × 41.6 × 4 cm | 16 1/4 × 16 3/8 × 1 5/8 inches (framed)

Rosemarie Trockel
Destroy, She Said, 2022
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Vera Falling Apart, 2022
Acrylic wool on canvas, framed in plexiglass
ca. 40 × 40 × 2 cm | 15 3/4 × 15 3/4 × 7/8 inches
43.5 × 43.5 × 4 cm | 17 1/8 × 17 1/8 × 1 5/8 inches (framed)

Rosemarie Trockel
Vera Falling Apart, 2022
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
CLUSTER VI: Door Ajar, 2021
Pigment prints on paper mounted on forex, metal frame
243.6 × 597.2 × 5 cm | 96 × 235 1/8 × 2 inches (framed)

Rosemarie Trockel
CLUSTER VI: Door Ajar, 2021
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Ageism, 2005
Plaster, steel, plastic, cotton
40 x 60 x 26.4 cm | 15 3/4 x 23 5/8 x 10 3/8 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Ageism, 2005
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 2005
Wood, paint, fake hair, fabric, metal, plastic
41 × 31 × 36 cm | 16 1/8 × 12 1/8 × 14 1/8 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 2005
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Wette gegen sich selbst, 2005
Mixed media
14 × 44 × 22 cm | 5 1/2 × 17 1/4 × 8 5/8 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Wette gegen sich selbst, 2005
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 2002
Wool (patchwork) on canvas
180 × 400 cm | 70 3/4 × 157 1/2 inches
185.5 × 404.5 × 8.6 cm | 73 × 159 1/4 × 3 3/8 inches (framed)

Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 2002
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 2002 (detail)

Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 2002
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 2002 (detail)

Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 2002
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 2002

Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 2002
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Cage Doré, 2021
Ceramic, sol-silicate-based paint, wooden painted frame, plexiglass
60 × 60 × 5 cm | 23 5/8 × 23 5/8 × 2 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Cage Dorée, 2021
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Cage Dorée, 2021 (detail)

Rosemarie Trockel
Cage Dorée, 2021
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Cage Dorée, 2021 (detail)

Rosemarie Trockel
Cage Dorée, 2021
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Cage Dorée, 2021 (detail)

Rosemarie Trockel
Cage Dorée, 2021
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
No Woman No Cry, 2000
40 aluminium plates (Dibond)
333 x 509 cm | 131 x 200 3/8 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
No Woman No Cry, 2000
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
No Woman No Cry, 2000 (detail)

Rosemarie Trockel
No Woman No Cry, 2000
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
No Woman No Cry, 2000 (detail)

Rosemarie Trockel
No Woman No Cry, 2000
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Replace Me, 1994/2010
Mixed media
68 × 58 × 4.8 cm | 26 3/4 × 22 7/8 × 2 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Replace Me, 1994/2010
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Childless Figure, 1970/2011
Mixed media
92 × 134 × 4.8 cm | 36 1/8 × 52 3/4 × 2 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Childless Figure, 1970/2011
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Golden Brown, 2005
Wool on canvas, wood
296 × 296 × 7 cm | 116 1/2 x 116 1/2 x 2 3/4 inches

Study for Golden Brown, 2005
Wool on canvas, wood
100 × 100 x 7 cm | 39 3/8 x 39 3/8 x 2 3/4 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Golden Brown, 2005
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Golden Brown, 2005
Wool (mustard yellow) on canvas, wood
296 × 296 cm | 116 1/2 × 116 1/2 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Golden Brown, 2005
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Study for Golden Brown, 2005
Wool (mustard yellow) on canvas, wood
100 × 100 × 7 cm | 39 3/8 × 39 3/8 × 2 3/4 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Study for Golden Brown, 2005
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Study for Golden Brown, 2005 (detail)

Rosemarie Trockel
Study for Golden Brown, 2005
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 1990
Foam plastic, wool
61.5 × 51.5 × 4.5 cm | 24 1/8 × 20 1/4 × 1 3/4 inches
69.5 × 59.5 × 7 cm | 27 3/8 × 23 3/8 × 2 3/4 inches (framed)

Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled, 1990
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
My Dear Colleagues, 1986
Wool (red/white), plastics
51 × 40 × 8 cm | 20 × 15 3/4 × 3 1/8 inches
84 × 64 × 12 cm | 33 × 25 1/8 × 4 3/4 inches (framed)

Rosemarie Trockel
My Dear Colleagues, 1986
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Replace Me, 2011
Acrystal, steel, wool, plastic, mixed media
80 × 420 × 71 cm | 31 1/2 × 165 3/8 × 28 inches

Rosemarie Trockel
Replace Me, 2011
Details
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Current and Upcoming
Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel, Atheismus, 2007
© Rosemarie Trockel

Raum für phantasievolle Aktionen
Group Exhibition
Kunstmuseum Bonn
Through December 31, 2024

On the 30th anniversary of its presence along the Museum Mile, the Kunstmuseum Bonn is offering a comprehensive view of its collection of contemporary art, which is being freshly presented from new perspectives in twenty rooms. Even if the presentation shows the Kunstmuseum to be a special site for painting, fundamental roles in the argumentation are nonetheless played by installation, film and photography.

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Transmissions: Selections from the Marciano Collection
Group Exhibition
Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles
Through February 2025

Curated by Hanneke Skerath and Douglas Fogle, this exhibition brings together works from the Marciano Collection, a collection that seeks to communicate and respond to the most historically significant developments in art history and human society, while continuously considering current socio-political conditions and contemporary visual culture. This presentation will include works by artists including Louise Lawler, Rosemarie Trockel and Kaari Upson.

Link
Rosemarie Trockel
Transmissions: Selections from the Marciano Collection, installation view, 2024
Courtesy the Marciano Art Foundation. Photo: Heather Rasmussen
Rosemarie Trockel
Hanne Darboven, Ein Jahrhundert-ABC, 1970/1971, installation view, Mudam, Luxembourg, 2024
Photo: Mareike Tocha

Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing 1960–1991
Group Exhibition
Mudam, Luxembourg
Through February 2, 2025

Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing 1960–1991 surveys the history of digital art from a feminist perspective, focusing on women who worked with computers as a tool or subject and artists who worked in an inherently computational way.

Comprising more than 100 works by fifty artists from fourteen countries, it spans a period from the first years of integrated circuit computing in the 1960s to the “microcomputer revolution,” which led to the birth of home computing in the 1980s.

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Thea Djordjadze, Rosemarie Trockel
limitation of life
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
Through April 27, 2025

The Lenbachhaus will present a collaborative work by the artists Rosemarie Trockel and Thea Djordjadze. Djordjadze was Trockel’s student at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1998 to 2001 and the two have maintained a close artistic relationship ever since, realizing numerous joint projects and exhibitions. In their exhibition at Lenbachhaus, the artists want to delve into the conception of beauty and challenge established aesthetic conventions, taking inspiration from reflections by the poet Arthur Rimbaud. Rimbaud’s opening lines from “Une saison en enfer” (1873) provide a leitmotif for the artists’ approach: “One evening I sat Beauty on my knees. And I found her bitter and I reviled her.”

Link
Rosemarie Trockel
Thea Djordjadze / Rosemarie Trockel, Lob der Langeweile, 2008
© Thea Djordjadze and Rosemarie Trockel/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024
Exhibitions at Sprüth Magers
Rosemarie Trockel

Mondi Possibili
Henni Alftan, John Baldessari, Cao Fei, Thomas Demand, Thea Djordjadze, Lucy Dodd, Robert Elfgen, Peter Fischli David Weiss, Sylvie Fleury, Jenny Holzer, Donald Judd, Karen Kilimnik, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, David Ostrowski, Michail Pirgelis, Sterling Ruby, Thomas Scheibitz, Andreas Schulze, Hyun-Sook Song, Robert Therrien, Rosemarie Trockel, Kaari Upson, Andrea Zittel
August 31–September 14, 2023
Seoul

Mondi Possibili highlights the interplay between art and design and explores the many ways in which experimentation with material, technique and scale can reveal the hidden narratives, quiet drama and humor in the everyday items that furnish our lives as well as our imaginations. Connected through a paradigm of the possible, all artworks on show examine familiar objects – citing, celebrating, adapting or appropriating them – offering surprising, playful or unsettling approaches that open up a range of “possible worlds.” This will be the fourth edition of Sprüth Magers’ Mondi Possibili – first titled by Pasquale Leccese – showcasing significant themes in the selected artists’ works as well as the gallery’s longstanding heritage. Its three previous iterations were presented in 1989, 2006 and 2007 in Cologne, where the gallery’s history is firmly rooted, and art and design have intersected for many decades.

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Sprüth Magers x Artadia

A Benefit Exhibition to Support the Next Generation of Artists
Thea Djordjadze, Lucy Dodd, Karen Kilimnik, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Pamela Rosenkranz, Analia Saban, Rosemarie Trockel
April 4–April 22, 2023
New York

Bringing together a group of outstanding female artists in an innovative and collaborative effort to support the next generation, Sprüth Magers is pleased to announce a benefit exhibition to raise funds for the non-profit organization Artadia. Through grantmaking, community-building and advocacy, Artadia strengthens the invaluable role visual artists play in our society.

The exhibition comprises influential contemporary voices across multiple generations, reflecting both the discourse on art, gender and power that is firmly embedded in Sprüth Magers’ history and its enduring support of pioneering female figures. Featured will be works by artists who are all part of the gallery’s dynamic roster, including Thea Djordjadze, Lucy Dodd, Karen Kilimnik, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Pamela Rosenkranz, Analia Saban and Rosemarie Trockel. All funds raised will go towards the impactful Artadia Awards program.

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Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Why gravel, Ms. Smith?
January 25–March 19, 2022
London

The solo exhibition Why gravel, Ms. Smith? presents new works by Rosemarie Trockel at Sprüth Magers, London. On view are new and recent ceramic works, a previously unseen Cluster consisting of digitally reconfigured photographs, as well as two new variants of key themes and forms, including the debut of a new series consisting of photographic prints rendered as oil paintings.

In her practice, Trockel investigates questions that emerge from artistic processes as well as societal issues by integrating the reinterpretation of “feminine” techniques and crafts (such as ceramics), the ironic shifting of cultural codes, and the refusal to conform to the commercial and institutional ideologies of the art system.

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GO FIGURE!?
Henni Alftan, John Baldessari, Cao Fei, George Condo, Diane Dal-Pra, Thomas Demand, Alex Foxton, Lenz Geerk, Elizabeth Glaessner, Matthew Angelo Harrison, Oscar yi Hou, Gary Hume, Clementine Keith-Roach, Karen Kilimnik, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Jo Messer, Pamela Rosenkranz, Sterling Ruby, Thomas Scheibitz, Cindy Sherman, Rosemarie Trockel, Kara Walker, Andro Wekua
May 19–May 26, 2021

GO FIGURE!? is an online exhibition in collaboration with Ed Tang and Jonathan Cheung. It presents works by artists from Sprüth Magers roster alongside a selection of emerging artists from around the globe and across various media, aiming to welcome a playful dialogue between the exhibiting artists and works.

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Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel / Thea Djordjadze
Un soir, j’ai assis la beauté sur mes genoux. And I found her bitter. And I hurt her.
July 7–August 26, 2017
Berlin

Un soir, j'ai assis la beauté sur mes genoux. And I found her bitter and I hurt her is a joint exhibition by the long-time collaborators Rosemarie Trockel and Thea Djordjadze. It is the first time that the two installations from 2007 and 2008 are on view in Berlin. The works have an allegorical nature that explores a number of themes pertinent to contemporary art. Issues around the boundaries of media, and the artwork as a fixed concept are called into question, as well as the exhibition space as a representational frame.

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Eau de Cologne
Rosemarie Trockel, Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Jenny Holzer / Lady Pink
June 28–August 20, 2016
Los Angeles

The group show Eau de Cologne at Sprüth Magers in Los Angeles features work from the late 1970s to 2016 by Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Cindy Sherman and Rosemarie Trockel. The exhibition at Sprüth Magers’ recently-opened Los Angeles gallery is a follow–up to its predecessor in Berlin last year. It sheds light on key topics in these artists’ works, but also the specific history of the gallery and its connection to these important female figures of an art that subtly addresses women’s roles in very different ways.

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Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel / Thea Djordjadze
Un soir, j’ai assis la beauté sur mes genoux. And I found her bitter. And I hurt her.
March 6–April 19, 2008
Munich

“Un soir, j'ai assis la beauté sur mes genoux. And I found her bitter and I hurt her,” presents a collaboration between Thea Djordjadze and Rosemarie Trockel. Having realized several exhibition projects together in the past, the two artists seek each time to address concerns about the processes of artistic creation, questioning the freedoms and limitations it entails. Drawing the title of the exhibition from Arthur Rimbaud’s poem `La Saison en Enfer´the artists equally challenge and subvert our expectations of art – what we think it should provide and the promise of beauty we often expect it to entail.

Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel

Thea Djordjadze / Rosemarie Trockel
Un soir, j’ai assis la beauté sur mes genoux. And I found her bitter and I hurt her.
October 9–November 10, 2007
London

Having realized several exhibition projects together in the past, the two artists seek each time to address concerns about the processes of artistic creation, questioning the freedoms and limitations it entails. Drawing the title of the exhibition from Arthur Rimbaud’s poem ’La Saison en Enfer’ the artists equally challenge and subvert our expectations of art – what we think it should provide and the promise of beauty we often expect it to entail.

Playing with the scale and vitrine like qualities of the front gallery the first installation is constructed so that the virtually monochrome canvases appear to be floating on water, their surfaces reflected against the black painted walls of the gallery. The elements of the construction overwhelm and simultaneously dissolve into the background so the whole work itself almost eludes the viewer.

Mondi Possibili
Thea Djordjadze, Peter Fischli David Weiss, Claus Föttinger, Thomas Grünfeld, Jenny Holzer, Stefan Kern, Joseph Kosuth, Louise Lawler, Michail Pirgelis, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Thomas Scheibitz, Andreas Schulze, Cindy Sherman, Rosemarie Trockel, Franz West
January 17–April 7, 2006
Cologne

As part of the PASSAGEN, the supporting programme of the International Furniture Fair in Cologne, at the beginning of the year Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers present a new edition of the exhibition “Mondi Possibili”. The works on display deal with the subject of furniture from a variety of angles: as citation, as homage, as adaptation, or as copy. Others are usable objects that hardly differ from their reference objects in the domain of design or furniture.

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Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
April 24–June 19, 2004
Cologne

Shadow and Light
Richard Artschwager, John Baldessari, Matthew Barney, George Condo, Walter Dahn, Olafur Eliasson, Martin Fengel, Peter Fischli David Weiss, Dan Flavin, Sylvie Fleury, Gilbert & George, Dan Graham, Thomas Grünfeld, Andreas Gursky, Stefan Hirsig, Jenny Holzer, Axel Kasseböhmer, Stefan Kern, Karen Kilimnik, Astrid Klein, Louise Lawler, Anne Loch, Paul Morrison, Jean-Luc Mylayne, Bruce Nauman, Manuel Ocampo, Nam June Paik, Hirsch Perlman, Lari Pittman, Barbara Probst, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Robert Ryman, Frances Scholz, Andreas Schulze, Cindy Sherman, Paul Sietsema, Rosemarie Trockel, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Christopher Wool, Martin Wöhrl, Philip-Lorca diCorcia
July 26–August 31, 2003
Salzburg

Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers will open a temporary space in Salzburg together with their London partner Simon Lee for the duration of the Salzburg Festival. One of the main reasons for this was the fact that the galleries are traditionally closed in August and that exhibition operations are shut down, but at the same time cultural life is at its peak in Salzburg, not far from our Munich location. It makes sense to contribute something to the cultural climate with a precisely formulated group exhibition and at the same time to reach a sophisticated international audience.

Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel

20th Anniversary Show
John Baldessari, Alighiero Boetti, George Condo, Walter Dahn, Thomas Demand, Thea Djordjadze, Peter Fischli David Weiss, Sylvie Fleury, Andreas Gursky, Jenny Holzer, Gary Hume, Axel Kasseböhmer, Karen Kilimnik, Astrid Klein, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Jean-Luc Mylayne, Nina Pohl, Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha, Frances Scholz, Andreas Schulze, Cindy Sherman, Rosemarie Trockel, Andrea Zittel, Philip-Lorca diCorcia
April 25–October 18, 2003
Cologne

In 1983, Monika Sprüth opened her Cologne based gallery with a solo show by Andreas Schulze. Starting from the idea to establish a forum for young and unknown artists, the central focus of the gallery concept was developed in the discourse of the 80s. The gallery program was completed by recourses to artistic attitudes of the last 40 years. This research, motivated by reflection on contemporary art history, was more and more realized in cooperation with Philomene Magers who directed her Bonn gallery since 1992. After a few years of loose cooperation, Monika Sprüth Gallery and Philomene Magers Gallery aligned with each other after, and together the Monika Sprüth / Philomene Magers Gallery opened up in Munich in 1999.

Things
Peter Fischli David Weiss, Rosemarie Trockel, Richard Artschwager
November 8–December 20, 2002
Munich

Rosemarie Trockel
Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Miles
November 7, 1997–January 24, 1998
Cologne

Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel
Zeichnungen 1981-1990
February 22–April 23, 1994
Cologne

Rosemarie Trockel

Künstler der Galerie
Peter Fischli David Weiss, Rosemarie Trockel, George Condo, Axel Kasseböhmer, Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Anne Loch, Andreas Schulze, Thomas Wachweger, Milan Kunc, Ina Barfuss
June 13–July 15, 1987
Cologne

Press

Who will be in in 2023
Texte zur Kunst, article by Dora Budor, June 2023

Impiety
Artforum Online, article by Lynne Cooke, June 2023

WHAT-IF COULD-BE
Cahiers D’Art, article by Joan Simon, 2013

58th Venice Biennale Review: Brilliance and Bluster
Frieze, review by Jennifer Higgie, May 9, 2019

Always Judge a Book by Its Cover:
Parkett, article by Christian Rattemeyer, December 2014

Rosemarie Trockel’s Idea of Relief
Parkett, article by Brigid Doherty, December 2014

Blocked Access: Rosemarie Trockel’s Recent Ceramic Works
Parkett, article Gregory H. Williams, December 2014

Interior Motives
Cahiers D’Art, article by Bridgid Doherty, 2013

Wie feministisch sind Rosemarie Trockels Objekte?
Parkett, article by Anne M. Wagner, 1992

Biography

Since the early 1980s, Rosemarie Trockel (*1952, Schwerte) has been one of the most versatile and pioneering female artists in contemporary art. Her collages, knitting pictures, sculptures, installations and film works embark upon investigations into social role-models, gender-specific behavior and cultural codes that she combines with discourses from philosophy, theology, and the natural sciences. In these works, Trockel investigates both contemporary and historical discourses concerning artistic and social identity. Her feminist perspective challenges the concept of the male artistic genius and formulates an emphatic criticism both of the art world and of restrictive social norms with regard to social and sexual identity. Her first exhibitions took place at the galleries Monika Sprüth Cologne and Philomene Magers Bonn, both in 1983. Recent solo shows include Moderna Museet Malmö (2018/19), Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli in Torino (2016), Kunsthaus Bregenz (2015), travelling exhibition at Museo National Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, at the New Museum, New York and Serpentine Gallery, London (2012/2013) and Wiels Brussels, Culturegest Lisboa, Lisbon and Museion Bozen, Bolzano (2012/2013). Her 2005 retrospective Post-Menopause took place at the Museum Ludwig Köln, Cologne and at MAXXI, Rome. In 1999 she became the first female artist to represent Germany at the Venice Biennial, and in 1997 she took part in the Documenta X at Kassel. 

Education
1974–78 Kölner Werkschulen (Professor Werner Schriefers)
Teaching
1998–2015 Professor, Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
Awards, Grants and Fellowships
2014 Roswitha-Haftmann-Preis, Zurich
2011 Kaiserring der Stadt Goslar
2010 Peter-Weiss-Preis der Stadt Bochum
2008 Kunstpreis der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf, Dusseldorf
2006 Gallery of Honor of Westphalia (with Annette von Droste-Hülshoff)
2004 Wolfgang-Hahn-Preis, Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst am Kölner Museum Ludwig, Cologne
2001 Kulturpreis, Cologne
1999 Internationaler Kunstpreis der Kulturstiftung der Stadtsparkasse München, Munich
Deutscher Pavillon, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice
1998 Staatspreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf
Preisträgerin der Günther-Peill-Stiftung, Dueren
1992 Konrad-von-Soest-Preis, Muenster
1991 Fruhtrunk-Preis, Akademieverein München, Munich
1989 Ströher-Preis, Frankfurt
1985 Stipendium des Kulturkreises der deutschen Wirtschaft, Cologne
1984 Arbeitsstipendium der Stiftung Kunstfonds zur Förderung der zeitgenössischen bildenden Kunst, Bonn
Public Collections
Busch Reisinger Museum, Boston
Centre Pompidou, Paris
De Pont Stichting, Tilburg
Glenstone Museum, Potomac, MD
Kunstmuseum Basel
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen
MACBA, Barcelona
Museo Jumex, Mexico
Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt
Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museum Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Städel Museum, Frankfurt
Tate, London
The Art Institute of Chicago