Dennis Oppenheim

Opening reception June 19th, 2009, 5:00 – 9:00 p.m.
June 20th – August 1st, 2009

inaugural adress by Eugen Blume, curated by Erik Bruinenberg, in collaboration with Trollwerk Art e.V.

“The artistic trajectory of Dennis Oppenheim has always been characterized by its incorrigible discontinuity, motivated then as today by an intensely adventurous curiosity. Following his earthworks (1967-69) and body-works came the installations (from 1972 onwards), using puppets as their main theme (the harrowing piece “Attempt to Raise Hell” at the Pompidou Center). Later on, at the end of the seventies, Oppenheim produced what he calls his “machine pieces” which, by denying the object its sculptural status, are presented as complex constructions, systems open to both an aleatory and an enigmatic mode of functioning. There is an interesting progression from the early machine pieces which seemed infused with a confidence in rationality and in the possibility of grasping the structure of the mind to the late works which were designed to literally blow up and which seem to celebrate the triumph of irrationality and chaos.“

Through his works, his artistical realisations and his influence on contemporary art, Dennis Oppenheim is one of the major 20th century artists even if he cannot be categorized. So he can make the rare claim of being a key figure in not one, not two, but three major movements: Land Art, Body Art and Conceptual Art of which our exhibition shows a few unique selections.
Oppenheim uses quasi-scientific methods for the creation of art and making the work´s configuration or duration suject to climatic or other natural forces. For example the Annual Rings (1968), where he uses a shovel to create rings in the snow on the U.S./Canadian border. In the early 1970s he turned to Body Art and produced such seminal works as Reading Position for Second Degree Burn, where he sunbathed for five hours with an open book covering his bare chest (an exercise in painting the body).

Oppenheim registers in the conceptual descendants as Chris Burden, Robert Smithson, Bruce Nauman and Joseph Beuys. His sculptures, interventions in outside, his models and installations gave the opportunity of huge exhibitions dedicating Dennis Oppenheim as one of he major artists of his generation.

Dennis Oppenheim was born in Electric City, Washington in 1938. He attended the School of Arts and Crafts, Oakland (B.F.A., 1965) and the Stanford University, Palo Alto, (M.F.A., 1965). He lives and works in New York City.

Partly taken from Art Press, January 1993, Dennis Oppenheim: A Process of
Discontinuity, by Eleanor Heartney.