Karel Martens

The Kunstverein Munich has hosted the largest retrospective exhibition of works by the Dutch artist, graphic designer and professor Karl Martens. Martens made a name for himself as a pioneer of the overprinting technique and gained recognition for his systematic techniques in colour, format and typography. Together with Wigger Bierma, he founded the internationally renowned University of Graphic Art, Design and Typography in the Dutch city of Arnheim in 1998, for which he developed a unique interdisciplinary teaching method. This exhibition presented a selection of representative works from Martens’ extensive oeuvre. It explicitly focused on his most recent pieces in order to illustrate the topicality of Martens’ work today. The exhibition was developed in cooperation with students from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. It was accompanied by a series of discussion events staged in Munich, Paris, Amsterdam, Vilnius and New York. The Kunstverein Munich has also produced an accompanying publication about Karel Martens in collaboration with the artist himself.

Artistic director: Christopher Fitzpatrick
Curator: Matthew Post
Artist: Karel Martens (NL)

Additional Venues:

Satellite projects in Paris, Amsterdam, Vilnius and New York