ARTISTS
J眉rgen Klauke: Transformer: Photoworks from the 1970s
Koenig & Clinton is pleased to present historic works by German artist J眉rgen Klauke. Transformer: Photoworks from the 1970s features multiple series that subvert conventional models of gender, self-representation, sexuality, and identity; it is also the artist鈥檚 first solo exhibition in a New York gallery.
This presentation includes a selection of color- and black-and-white photographs from distinct bodies of work produced between 1970 and 1976. Klauke鈥檚 staged photographs from this period predominantly feature images of the artist as a spectacularly costumed, androgynous, and/or deformed figure. Each suite of images systematically deconstructs the conventional persona of the male artist. Among the works on view, Klauke鈥檚 iconic Transformer series captures him in a variety of confrontational poses and gender-ambiguous guises.
Klauke is widely acknowledged as a leading figure in Performance Art and foundational to Body Art. His work has influenced subsequent generations of artists working across media in interdisciplinary practices. His use of cinematographic sequence and the tableau in photography underscores the theatricality of his staged performances, in which the artist鈥檚 body serves as a surface for the projection of multiple identities and sexes. As a result, the photographs featuring Klauke鈥檚 own body are not self-portraits, but rather, representations of the self as something else.
As noted by art historian, critic, and curator Klaus Honnef, Klauke addresses 鈥渢he suggestive danger to mental and physical identity through the power of media as well as the developing mechanization of all areas of life 鈥� not excluding the area of the human body.鈥�
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Koenig & Clinton is pleased to present historic works by German artist J眉rgen Klauke. Transformer: Photoworks from the 1970s features multiple series that subvert conventional models of gender, self-representation, sexuality, and identity; it is also the artist鈥檚 first solo exhibition in a New York gallery.
This presentation includes a selection of color- and black-and-white photographs from distinct bodies of work produced between 1970 and 1976. Klauke鈥檚 staged photographs from this period predominantly feature images of the artist as a spectacularly costumed, androgynous, and/or deformed figure. Each suite of images systematically deconstructs the conventional persona of the male artist. Among the works on view, Klauke鈥檚 iconic Transformer series captures him in a variety of confrontational poses and gender-ambiguous guises.
Klauke is widely acknowledged as a leading figure in Performance Art and foundational to Body Art. His work has influenced subsequent generations of artists working across media in interdisciplinary practices. His use of cinematographic sequence and the tableau in photography underscores the theatricality of his staged performances, in which the artist鈥檚 body serves as a surface for the projection of multiple identities and sexes. As a result, the photographs featuring Klauke鈥檚 own body are not self-portraits, but rather, representations of the self as something else.
As noted by art historian, critic, and curator Klaus Honnef, Klauke addresses 鈥渢he suggestive danger to mental and physical identity through the power of media as well as the developing mechanization of all areas of life 鈥� not excluding the area of the human body.鈥�
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