This week I finally saw the exhibit on artist's studios from Carl Spitzweg to Matthew Barney at the Neue Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.
Some fragments of what I saw- and remember:
Daniel Spoerri's Atelier, Reconstruction of the Chambre No.13, Hotel Carcassonne, Paris 1998.
On the wall the "Fallenbilder": Tabletops complete with all plates, cigarette butts and leftover foods glued to them, records of a moment
Matthew Barney "drawing with restraints", him on a trampoline trying to reach his 4 m tall studio ceiling, drawing a self portrait while doing so and videotaping it. Video, 1987.
Jan Dibbets "perspective correction" 1968, a trapezium taped to his studio floor becomes a perfect square when photographed in perspective. The studio as installation.
Bruce Nauman's "mapping the studio I " 2001, video installation, showing his studio empty at night- and its secret inhabitants, the mice, cats and moths.
Gicacometti's "gray" studio in Montparnasse - the drawings on the walls were removed (with parts of the wall) and are shown at the exhibit.
They also have the huge altarpiece-like diptych and triptych on which Georg Baselitz and Gerhard Richter describe their studios, the remnants of Beuys temporary "studio" at Documenta 5 are there and a life size reproduction of Mondrian's atelier at the Rue du Depart 26, including his pipes and tea pot.
Luckily, once you find the entrance and get past the architecture and finishes, colors, columns, circles, triangles and stairs, if you are unsure what to think of the exhibit, the descriptions by the curators explain in great detail and quite matter-of-factly what the artists had in mind while working at their studios.
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