Babylon
September 22–October 28, 2000
Munich

George Condo, Marcel Dzama, Christoph Lohmann, Andreas Schulze, Karen Yasinsky
curated by Tanja Pol

The exhibition “Babylon” brings together artists from two different generations who, at first glance, share the commonality of working figuratively in the broadest sense, utilizing media such as painting, drawing, and film. Yet the primary objective of this exhibition is in fact to highlight other parallels: a shared attitude and mood present in the artworks.

“Babylon” draws on facets of language, especially visual language, as well as confusion and chaos. It also suggests decadence and decay. Paradoxically, language itself functions as an organizing framework, just as curating an exhibition inherently involves ordering as well: arranging and selecting.

The positions presented here each establish a personal iconography, making them quite distinctive despite any shared elements. They employ traditional painting techniques to render comic-like details, as in Christoph Lohmann’s work, while other paintings find him seemingly deliberately painting “sloppily” with calculated intent, allowing paint to spill over the edges of the canvas. There is a semblance to Karen Yasinsky’s works on paper, where meticulously painted patterns of women’s dresses, which seem to take precedence in the drawings, are contrasted with flat, overpainted faces. Qualities of figuration are both emphasized and erased here, painted over.