Coinciding with the Hauser & Wirth Publishers presentation is Geta Brătescu. The Gesture, The Drawing at the recently opened Hauser & Wirth Rämistrasse space. The carefully selected body of works in the exhibition render the different means in which Brătescu engaged the primordial unit of the line—in curved, hard-edged, contained or spread compositions. The artist would often draw with her eyes closed, connecting with pen and paper through the sensation of touch and feeling, as seen in the works from the series ‘Drawing With Eyes Closed.’ For Brătescu, the line is manifest in the movement of the artist’s hand in space as it handles the pencil, the marker or the scissors, creating a flow of shapes, forms and silhouettes. As Brătescu explained, ‘No matter what tool I might use, when I draw and then examine my work, I think that the musicality of the line is in my nature. I liked to dance. When I draw, I can say that my hand dances.’ The presentations coincide with the major exhibition Geta Brătescu – L’art c’est un jeu sérieux at Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (on view until 15 November 2020). This exhibition will then travel to GL Strand in Copenhagen in January 2021.
About the artist
Brătescu originally studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Bucharest, in the late 1940s but was expelled due to the Communist party’s objection to her parents’ middle class background. Over the course of a seven-decade career she went on to develop a deeply personal practice and was one of the first representatives of conceptualist approaches in Romania. Brătescu’s oeuvre comprises drawing, collage, textiles, photography, experimental film and performance which mines themes of identity, gender, and dematerialisation. Her aesthetic—lo-fi, handmade, incorporating everyday materials—evolved from an attitude towards her studio as a safe environment of enclosure as well as a stage for playful invention. Her more recent international recognition, including her Venice Biennale presentation in 2017, provided a basis for the re-evaluation of her experimental work within the framework of conceptual practices.
Press release courtesy Hauser & Wirth.
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