Curated by Norman Rosenthal, this exhibition at Almine Rech Gallery remembers and reinterprets for today’s audience A New Spirit in Painting, a seminal presentation of 20th-century painting at the Royal Academy of Arts in London co-curated by Rosenthal with Christos Joachimides and Nicholas Serota in 1981.
The original exhibition embraced painting’s capacity for representation, playfulness, and experimentation, showcasing several generations of artists who bought together the New York art world’s sphere of influence with the then little known new European, especially German and Italian, painting. With A New Spirit Then, A New Spirit Now, 1981 - 2018, Rosenthal reassesses this defining moment in his curatorial career with nearly 40 years of hindsight.
The original show challenged painting’s status as a ‘conservative’ medium by presenting a self-aware relationship between artist, painted image, and reality. Rosenthal pushes this investigation even further in his new presentation, questioning the role of personal and collective memory in our conception of this moment.
A New Spirit Then, A New Spirit Now, 1981 - 2018, is staged across two of Almine Rech Gallery’s spaces. In New York, the exhibition featured historical paintings from the 1980’s. In London, the exhibition expands with works made after 2000.
The exhibition will feature works by, among others, Frank Auerbach, Georg Baselitz, Francesco Clemente, Rainer Fetting, Per Kirkeby, Maria Lassnig, Markus Lüpertz, Malcolm Morley, A.R. Penck, Susan Rothenberg, David Salle and Julian Schnabel.
After the exhibition tour, refreshments will be served at the gallery.
A New Spirit Then, A New Spirit Now, 1981 - 2018 will be open from October 2 - November 17, 2018.
As this event has limited capacity, RSVPs will be confirmed via email should they be successful and are not guaranteed.