After Nature | With works by artists from the Schroth Collection

The exhibition presents works by artists from the Schroth Collection that stand for themselves as powerful entities with concentrated creative means and at the same time have a close connection to reality: The cloudless sky, the immense movements of the sea, the vibrant colours of autumn leaves, sunlight or the human body, for example, are their starting point, inspiration or theme.

Their creative means, such as reduced pictorial elements, a clear formal language, pure, often monochrome colors and a logical concept, were developed in the 20th century for and through the process of liberation from the imitation of nature, i.e. the depiction of reality. In contemporary art, however, they are also used to formulate phenomena and processes of the real world.

Some artists use universal compositional means to depict specific, unique light, shape or dimensional conditions from reality; others take observations of nature as inspiration and combine them with creative conception and mathematical construction; some uncover deeper truths and structures of our environment through their artistic interventions. At the same time, the works are present as realities in their own right.

After Nature examines the relationship between reality and work, but also between nature, mankind and culture, as well as between universality and uniqueness, and breaks up the concept of non-objectivity in contemporary art.

Completed by selected loans, the works stem from the Schroth Collection.
Jill Baroff | Antje Blumenstein | Thomas Deyle | Inge Dick | Jean-François Dubreuil | Spencer Finch | James Howell | Yves Klein | Jean Legros | Mike Meiré | Charles-Albert Mudry | Burghard Müller-Dannhausen | Susan Morris | Reinoud Oudshoorn | Anton Quiring | Elisabeth Sonneck | Günther Uecker | Ignacio Uriarte | Jan van Munster | Pieter Vermeersch | Joan Witek

Exhibition period
15 December 2024 – 2 March 2025

Opening reception
14 December 2024, 5 p.m.

RAUM SCHROTH im Museum Wilhelm Morgner
Thomästraße 1, 59494 Soest
Arrival | Opening hours | Admission

Detail © Jill Baroff, Red Tide Circle Chesapeak Winter, 2007, 105 x 105 cm, PhC Ulli Sowaa