Jürgen Partenheimer

Das Archiv / The archive

Die Magie von Vorstellung und Wirklichkeit

Jürgen Partenheimer (b. Munich, 1947) rose to international renown with his participations in the biennials of Paris, Venice, and São Paulo. His multifaceted oeuvre combines constructive elements of Minimal Art with lyrical intensity. With critical intelligence, the artist measures and maps the free space of art and its practice, which must constantly be redefined. A representative of subjective abstraction, he is one of the most important German artists working today.

As the artist’s physical and psychological “storeroom,” the “archive” unites memories with the present and individual with cultural recollection. It is the scene of encounters between works from different periods and in different media: selected artists’ books and writings, paintings, works on paper, and sculptures explore a richly evocative interplay of forms and subject matters. Partenheimer outlines the project as follows: “The artist’s archive refers neither to a place nor to a space. It is a synonym for all that exists and has been gathered within and outside an open field of imagination and reality.”

In 2014, the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, the Falckenberg Collection, Hamburg, the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, and the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver will present thematic exhibitions of Jürgen Partenheimer’s work. The book, which was designed in close collaboration with the artist, sheds light on various aspects of his oeuvre.

Authors writing in several languages and representing a variety of disciplines, including Anne Carson, Lebogang Mashile, Carla Schulz-Hoffmann, John Burnside, Oswald Egger, and Rudi Fuchs, accepted the invitation to contribute their personal perspectives.