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Franz Ackermann

Untitled (yet)

2008–9

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Franz Ackermann’s signature “mental maps”—small drawings, sketches, or gouaches drafted on the go—combine signs of tourism, modernism, and globalization (an aerial tramway, a modernist housing block) with more abstract forms. Indicative of the painting overall, the mental maps convey both a visual and a conceptual impression. They point to a specific place in the world while also opening up imaginary spaces—an effect amplified by the artist’s use of glaringly intense colors. The central image of the tramway, with its fixtures stretched out like tentacles, forms the hub of a matrix of interconnectivity among the disparate elements within the same pictorial space. The painting thus presents space and place as predominantly subjective categories bound up with questions of memory and identity. At the same time it visualizes our globalized world as flattened, the result of the ways in which increased communication, travel, and migration have affected how we live and perceive today. [Permanent collection label, 2016]

  • Artist Franz Ackermann (German, b. 1963)
  • Title Untitled (yet)
  • Date 2008–9
  • Medium Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions unframed | 105 3/4 x 212 1/4 in.
  • Credit line University purchase with funds from the David Woods Kemper Memorial Foundation, 2011
  • Copyright © Franz Ackermann
  • Object number WU 2011.0001

Chaos and Awe: Painting for the 21st Century
Frist Art Museum, 06/22/2018 - 09/16/2018

Encountering the City: The Urban Experience in Contemporary Art
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/12/2014 - 01/04/2015

Contemporary German Art: Selections from the Permanent Collection
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/03/2013 - 09/07/2013

Precarious Worlds: Contemporary Art from Germany
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/09/2011 - 01/09/2012

Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009 [part of on-site installation "<>-Getaway", 2008–2009]
Tate Britain (London, England), 02/03/2009 - 04/26/2009

1/17/2011
Purchased from neugerriemschneider Galerie (Berlin, Germany); Purchased with funds from James M. Kemper Jr. (Kansas City, MO)

This artwork record may be incomplete or need refinement. Our staff actively researches the collection and revises records when new information is available. If you have questions or comments about this record, please contact us.