Hans-Peter Feldmann

Born in 1941 Hans-Peter Feldmann lives and works in Dusseldorf (Germany).
He is represented by several galleries, including the Galerie Martine Aboucaya, Paris.

Active since the 1960s, today Hans-Peter Feldmann is a major figure on the contemporary art scene. His works—photographic series, sculptures, installations, collections and books—have their origins in the acts of archiving and assemblage, particularly of images. Whether these are found images—press cuttings, postcards, documents, photographs—or whether they are of his own creation, they are characterized by their eclecticism and are constituent of a shared visual culture, specific to contemporary Western society.

The Collector’s Edition Box by Hans-Peter Feldmann for Lab’Bel by Michael Staab, associate curator.

The artistic maturity which Hans-Peter Feldmann has achieved allows him to find art even in everyday life. He opens his eyes and observes the little everyday things, those whose beauty but also the quirkiness escapes us so easily. He brings out the singularities of simple and familiar objects, decodes them and thus renews our gaze on this known universe.

A tray of strawberries bought initially for dessert can thus become the subject of a photographic series on individuality. The photos of his neighbor, who cleans her windows on fixed dates, come to symbolize our well-regulated daily life; and, in front of a collection of magazine covers, we see that in fact, thanks to image processing techniques, the beauties represented there all look alike and no longer have anything individual about them.

Feldmann also likes to play with the ideas ingrained in our heads about what art should and shouldn’t be. By repainting famous sculptures like Michelangelo’s David or the bust of Nefertiti, he ironizes their importance in the history of art while removing part of their aura and their distance. And all he has to do is display historical portraits of a red nose to bring the personalities they represent to life. With smile.