Worlds in the box

Mary Bauermeister, who turned 75 in 2009, first gained acclaim for her works and events at her Cologne studio in the 1960s. She is regarded as one of the initiators of an avant-garde movement later called “Fluxus” which significantly influenced art positions of the sixties. In 1962 she settled in New York where she made an artistic breakthrough with her ‘lens boxes” – white, wooden boxes filled with magnifying glasses, lenses and prisms, through which one can view a multi-layered labyrinth of objects, writing and drawings. This extensive exhibition was the first since 1972 to examine Bauermeister’s central work complex of lens boxes in the international art context of the 1960s and 1970s. By looking through magnifying glasses and lenses, exhibition goers explored Bauermeister’s conceptual world and participated in a playful approach to her ideas and design methods.
Another part of the exhibition featured works by fellow artists and pioneers, such as Joseph Beuys, George Brecht and Andy Warhol, which illustrate Bauermeister’s significance in the art scene of the 1960s and 1970s.

Curator: Kerstin Skrobanek
Artists: Arman (F), Ay-O (J), Thomas Bayrle, Mary Bauermeister, Joseph Beuys, George Brecht (USA), John Cage (USA), John Chick, Joseph Cornell (USA), Marcel Duchamp (F), Robert Filliou (F), Ken Friedman (USA), Ludwig Gosewitz, Alison Knowles (USA), Roy Lichtenstein (USA), Yoko Ono (J), Gerhard Richter, Larry Rivers (USA), Dieter Roth, Takado Saito (J), Thomas Schmit, Kurt Schwitters, Mieko Shiomi (J), Ferdinand Spindel, Daniel Spoerri (RO/CH), Timm Ulrichs, Ben Vautier (F), Andy Warhol (USA), Nam June Paik (ROK/USA).