Consideration Is Of No Money

Georg Herold
Consideration Is Of No Money
Curated by Liz Koury
November 6 - December 18, 2016
Opening reception: Sunday, November 6, 6-8pm

Magenta Plains is zufrieden to present Georg Herold: Consideration Is Of No Money a solo exhibition of historical works made between 1987 and 1990 curated by Liz Koury. One of Germany’s most prominent artists of the last three decades, Herold’s multifaceted oeuvre (encompassing sculpture, installation, photography, painting and video) and sustained interest in language and visual puns has shaped some of the key conceptual trends of recent decades.

Defiance, writ large, lies at the heart of Herold's provocative artworks. Having studied at the Academy with Sigmar Polke in Hamburg, Herold soon befriended fellow artists Albert Oehlen, Martin Kippenberger, Werner Büttner and Günther Förg. Together they formed a tightly knit group of provocateurs that embraced the punk attitude and rebellious anarchic spirit of the late 1970’s energetically thumbing their noses at authority, the art market as well as their artistic predecessors and culture in general.

Spanning three seminal years in Herold’s career, Magenta Plains will be presenting sculptures made from roofing lath, laminated particle board and lumber alongside caviar paintings. Deploying low-grade, everyday materials such as bricks, buttons, nails, copper, photographs, plants, old cheese, tights, tea strainers, worn-out underpants, and philosophical humor, Herold deeply questions the purpose of art and its context. However as Ralf Christofori pointed out, “It would be unfair to see [Herold’s] provocative gestures merely in the tradition of Arte Povera or ready-mades, doing no more than presenting comparatively poor and pathetic material as what it essentially is: a waste product of art and a waste product of reality. His works are too polished for that, his titles too clever.” Herold's caviar paintings are perhaps the best example of the artist’s use of nontraditional art materials, incongruous with the context of the substrate to which it is applied. By lavishly smearing caviar across the surface of the canvas, Georg transforms the meaning and value of the delicacy as something not consumed but invested.

Sphinx-like in attitude, the artist has always resisted a definitive interpretation of his works, instead preferring mysterious visual propositions and ludicrous discrepancies between his works, his materials and his titles. Herold understands his role as one of making meaning and challenging the viewer, declaring, ’I intend to reach a state that is ambiguous and allows all sorts of interpretations.’ His desire to put forth an object which is open to more than one interpretation legitimizes the provisional nature of understanding material and meaning, image and language.

Georg Herold (b. 1947, Jena, German Democratic Republic) has exhibited internationally. Prior to his studies at the Hochschule Academy in Hamburg, Herold apprenticed as a blacksmith at the Applied Arts Academy in Halle. Recent solo museum exhibitions include Dallas Contemporary, Dallas (2013); Ludwig Museum, Cologne (2007), the South London Gallery (2007), S.M.A.K, Ghent (2007), and Tate Liverpool (2004). In 2011, The Modern Institute in Glasgow presented Herold’s work in the two person exhibition 'Urs Fischer & Georg Herold' alongside his former student. Herold’s works are held in many collections worldwide including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; MOCA, Los Angeles, CA; SFMoMA, San Francisco, CA; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; and MACBa, Barcelona, Spain. Georg Herold holds professorships in Düsseldorf and Amsterdam, and lives and works in Cologne.

Liz Koury is a New York-based gallerist and curator. Co-founder of the legendary East Village gallery International With Monument, Koury launched the careers of Jeff Koons, Richard Prince and Peter Halley among many others. Her second gallery, Koury-Wingate, introduced the work of Franz West, Heimo Zobernig and Georg Herold to American audiences. Koury exhibited Herold's work in three separate solo presentations in the late 1980's. She is currently Senior Specialist of Post-War and Contemporary Art at artnet Auctions.