Hans Peter Feldmann
B. 1941
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. Using these oftentimes banal or bizarre images, blurring the distinctions or hierarchies between popular culture and the avant-garde, Feldman creates artist’s books, and exhibitions. His books without text, and photographic series, inventory a range of specific motifs, such as women’s legs (Legs), individuals smoking on a train (Smoke), or representations of love (Liebe – love). In the 1980s, the artist withdrew from the world of art in response to the increasing importance of money in the artistic sphere. He returned to art in the 1990s and chose to produce unlimited editions of works, which he no longer signed, thereby challenging the traditional codes and norms of the art market. His work brings a poetic dimension to everyday life and meaning to the constant stream or flux of images, typical of our era, as well as questioning notions of good taste and clichés.
David
Plaster and paint
110 x 43 x 35 cm each
Acquisition in 2016
Finding classical sculpture boring, he decides to adorn David and Eve, plaster copies forming a perfect couple, using flashy, artificial colours. This double acquisition follows the collective exhibition La Collection mise à nue par ses artistes, même conceived and produced by Lab’Bel, including the presentation of David et Eve at La Maison de La vache qui rit (Lons-le-Saunier, France) in 2016. In 2014, Hans-Peter Feldmann was invited by Lab’Bel to create the first Collector’s Edition Box of The Laughing Cow®. For this, he decided to adorn the iconic laughing cow with a red nose in order to appeal to the sense of humour of the viewer, who in this particular instance is no longer a visitor to an exhibition space, but is instead the consumer doing their supermarket shopping.