October 19, 2012 – 20. January 20, 2013
Exhibition at the MKM Museum Küppersmühle für Moderne Kunst

Curated by Eva Müller-Remmert and staged by MKM in honour of an outstanding artist, this show marks the first major retrospective dedicated to Bernard Schultze in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for 18 years. One of the foremost representatives of the German post-war avantgarde, Bernard Schultze (1915-2005) ranks as among the fathers of the Art Informel movement. On show are around 70 paintings, drawings, “Migof” creatures and spatial installations from his over 60 years of intensive artistic creativity. Seminal works loaned from numerous museums and private collections complement the selection of important pieces by Bernard Schultze from the Ströher Collection, which is housed in the MKM.

This retrospective unveils not only the full breadth of a multidisciplinary oeuvre, but also showcases the rich diversity of the intellectual world inhabited by Bernard Schultze. Following the figurative paintings of the 1940s, Schultze embraced the emergent international styles of action painting and tachism with his “Informel” works. From these beginnings, the artist went on to forge a highly individual, lyrical style. His intensely coloured and meticulously fashioned works address themes such as growth and decay, and symbolise cosmic systems and natural processes. Distributed across seven rooms, the works invite visitors to embark on a visual journey through the painterly adventures and “counter-realities” of Bernard Schultze.