Curated by Gyonata Bonvicini

TAUBA AUERBACH
KERSTIN BRÄTSCH
KNUT HENRIK HENRIKSEN
RAY JOHNSON
REE MORTON
SCOTT OLSON
R.H. QUAYTMAN
FLORIAN SCHMIDT

‘Paper, Scissors, Stone’ brings together the work of eight international artists who share an artistic language primarily interested in painting, without necessarily integrating it as a medium or a tool. In this way, the artists offer a model that eludes the incessantly returning discussion about the relevance of painting without doing away with the significance of painterly concerns.

The title for the exhibition is borrowed from the English’s name of one of the most popular games played using only the hand. Invented in Japan as Jan-ken-pon in the late 19th century, the game is often used as a selection method, but, unlike truly random selections, it can be played with skill, as a player can recognize and exploit the non-random behavior of an opponent. This reflects on the elusiviness of the artistic process, its anti-heirarchical patterns, but also implies some confrontational tension and a kind of shifting equality of values in the diverse media.

This group of artists investigates painting's contemporary potentials by taking up specific discourse from previous decades, so pinpointing the historical conditions of each medium and the associated ideological approaches. The inclusion of Ree Morton and Ray Johnson reflects an attempt to historicise the positions of a younger generation of artists, and is not simply for the sake of revivalism. Rather, the strength of such reflection is that, from a distance, key works of the past can shed new light on contemporary attitudes towards abstract painting.

‘Paper, Scissors, Stone’ can be seen as an attempt to offer manifold examples of abstraction’s inventive potential and will suggest varied reasons why it remains vital and essential to the contemporary critical debate.