American artist Amy Sillman exhibits at the Kunstmuseum Bern
Published: Friday, Sep 20th 2024, 09:20
Retour au fil d'actualité
The Kunstmuseum Bern is showing around 50 works by contemporary painter Amy Sillman until the beginning of February. On display are mainly paintings, but also drawings and animated videos, some of which the American artist has combined with pieces from the museum's collection.
"Painting is an iterative process," says the painter, who was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1955. Her rapid serial drawings and multi-layered paintings form the work that can be undone, reshaped, rearranged or even distorted: This idea is at the heart of Amy Sillman's work.
In the exhibition, the painter makes this creative process visible through animated videos in which forms and strokes are combined to create figures that in turn transform. But this is also evident in her paintings, which consist of successive layers of paint and merging forms that oscillate between abstraction and figuration.
"Upstairs is madness"
The exhibition "Amy Sillman - Oh, Clock!", which was curated by two co-curators and the artist herself, is divided into two parts: "It's neat at the bottom and crazy at the top," summarizes the painter. She studied illustration in New York, teaches and also writes about art.
On the first floor, large paintings by Amy Sillman hang on predominantly white walls. Shapes and figures sometimes reveal people in rather abstract, always multicolored compositions. The painter also exhibits drawings that she has produced and exhibited in the form of series.
On the second floor, the entire exhibition space becomes art. The artist has painted the walls and staged works from different eras and styles selected from the museum's collection. For example, an installation by Franz West stands next to a series of drawings by Ericka Beckman and an oil painting by Augusto Giacometti.
This is the first comprehensive exhibition on the American painter in Switzerland. The exhibition will run until February 2, 2025.
©Keystone/SDA
French 
English 
German 
Spanish 
Arabic