Galerie Friese
Galerie Friese

GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHT
Willi Baumeister, William N. Copley, Asana Fujikawa, Karin Kneffel, Thomas Müller, Hartmut Neumann, Claire de Santa Coloma, Cornelius Völker

14. September – 26. October 2024

William N. Copley's painting ‘Garden of Earthly Delight’ marks the starting point of the group exhibition of the same name at the Friese Gallery. Painted in 1960, Copley (1919-1996), who worked in the circle of Max Ernst, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp, quotes Hieronymus Bosch's ‘Garden of Earthly Delight’.

Copley adapts the theme in his usual ironic visual language to create a garden of earthly delights without any depiction of hell: people are swimming, rowing, playing, making music, flying, dancing on the globe – and all this under the control of women. At the centre of the picture stands an army of women with a ‘Non’ sign opposite an army of men with a ‘Oui’ sign. The battle of the sexes – a recurring theme in Copley's work – is nevertheless depicted as peaceful coexistence, in which only the women make the rules.

Freely associating the theme of earthly pleasure, the exhibition presents works by Willi Baumeister, Asana Fujikawa, Karin Kneffel, Thomas Müller, Hartmut Neumann, Claire de Santa Coloma and Cornelius Völker. Exuberant bouquets of flowers, surreal plant worlds, fairy-tale figures and swimmers lying in the sun tell of the joy of tradition, sensual experience and the power of the artistic creation of mysterious worlds.

 

GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHT
Willi Baumeister, William N. Copley, Asana Fujikawa, Karin Kneffel, Thomas Müller, Hartmut Neumann, Claire de Santa Coloma, Cornelius Völker

14. September – 26. October 2024

William N. Copley's painting ‘Garden of Earthly Delight’ marks the starting point of the group exhibition of the same name at the Friese Gallery. Painted in 1960, Copley (1919-1996), who worked in the circle of Max Ernst, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp, quotes Hieronymus Bosch's ‘Garden of Earthly Delight’.

Copley adapts the theme in his usual ironic visual language to create a garden of earthly delights without any depiction of hell: people are swimming, rowing, playing, making music, flying, dancing on the globe – and all this under the control of women. At the centre of the picture stands an army of women with a ‘Non’ sign opposite an army of men with a ‘Oui’ sign. The battle of the sexes – a recurring theme in Copley's work – is nevertheless depicted as peaceful coexistence, in which only the women make the rules.

Freely associating the theme of earthly pleasure, the exhibition presents works by Willi Baumeister, Asana Fujikawa, Karin Kneffel, Thomas Müller, Hartmut Neumann, Claire de Santa Coloma and Cornelius Völker. Exuberant bouquets of flowers, surreal plant worlds, fairy-tale figures and swimmers lying in the sun tell of the joy of tradition, sensual experience and the power of the artistic creation of mysterious worlds.