Jutta Koether Explained

Jutta Koether
Birth Place:Cologne, West Germany
Alma Mater:University of Cologne
Known For:painting

Jutta Koether (born 1958) is a German artist, musician and critic based in New York City and Berlin[1] since the early 1990s.

Early life and education

Koether was born in Cologne and studied art and philosophy at the University of Cologne.[2] She relocated to New York City in 1991.[3]

Career

Koether's paintings are exercises in color, line, form and pattern and often feature text. Her style has precedent in the work of Sigmar Polke and Kenny Scharf.[3] She is also inspired by artists and intellectuals who have created an alternative to mainstream culture, including underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger and musician Patti Smith.[4] She has collaborated with Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon on a number of projects, for example Her Noise at Tate Modern in 2005.[5] [6] Koether's work is also affiliated with Martin Kippenberger. Their relationship began in Cologne when she interviewed him for Spex magazine.[7] Although her work is not as grandiose as Kippenberger, both their works engage with the dense history of European, and more specifically, German painting.

For much of the 1990s, she mixed graffiti-inspired brushwork, fluorescent colors (especially bright pink), fragmented images and assorted quotations on surfaces that had a vibrant, all-over undergrowth.[8] Her solo show at Pat Hearn Gallery, New York, in 1997 featured a soundtrack by the artist, accompanied by Tom Verlaine.[9] Her visionary work, according to The New York Times art critic Roberta Smith, sees painting as multipurpose.[10]

Koether’s 2009 show entitled Lux Exterior at Reena Spaulings further explored a common thematic in her work, the relation of painting with other aspects of theoretical and counter culture. Koether’s 2009 show was discussed in David Joselit’s essay entitled Painting Beside Itself.[11] The exhibition, which included a painting entitled Hot Rod (after Poussin) (2009) along with sculptural found objects and a series of three performances, was noted by Joselit as a “sophisticated response to the question which I began [this essay]: How does a painting belong to a network?”

In spring 2012, Koether took part in the three-month exposition of Whitney Biennial.[12] Around that time, she conceived two large series of works that respond directly to the French artist Nicolas Poussin, a reinterpretation of his The Seven Sacraments reimagined as a series of installations, and Seasons (2012), a response to Poussin’s The Four Seasons.[13]

Since 1985, Koether has also worked as a reviewer and editor for many magazines and journals such as Spex, Texte zur Kunst, Flash Art and Artscribe.

Koether has taught at many institutions, including Columbia University, the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, Yale University, and Bard College. Currently, she is a professor at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg.

Selected exhibitions

2024

2014

2013

2012

2011

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2000

1999

1998

Brushholder Value, Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster

1994

Dysfunction USA, Arthur Rogers Gallery, New Orleans

1993

Parralax View: Cologne-New York, P.S. 1 Institute for Contemporary Art, New York

1987

Werkschau Jutta Koether, Kunstraum Stuttgart, Stuttgart

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.dca.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/jutta-koether.html Jutta Koether: Seasons and Sacraments, 9 February 2013 - 21 April 2013
  2. Book: Interviews, conversations, and chit-chat, 1986-2004. Kelley, Mike. 2005. JRP/Ringier. Edited and Introductions by John C. Welchman. 3905701006. Zürich. 95–117. 269434700.
  3. [Roberta Smith]
  4. http://www.modernamuseet.se/en/Moderna-Museet/PressRoom/Press-releases/Stockholm1/Jutta-Koether--painter-performer-participant/ Jutta Koether – The Thirst, 5 March, 2011 - 24 April, 2011
  5. Tate.org.uk
  6. Holly Myers (August 18, 2006), A message in the starkness Los Angeles Times.
  7. Web site: Jutta Koether: The Inside Job. Gordon. Kim. February 2011. Flash Art. September 7, 2017.
  8. [Roberta Smith]
  9. William McCollum, ArtNet.com
  10. https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07E6DD113EF936A25757C0A9639C8B63 Roberta Smith, "Art in Review; Jutta Koether," NY Times
  11. Joselit. David. 2009-10-01. Painting Beside Itself. October. -. 125–134. 10.1162/octo.2009.130.1.125. 57570958. 0162-2870.
  12. Web site: A Survey of a Different Color 2012 Whitney Biennial . NY Times . March 1, 2012 . March 5, 2012 . Roberta Smith.
  13. http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/jutta-koether-seasons-and-sacraments Jutta Koether: Seasons and Sacraments, 4 May 2013 to 7 July 2013