Liebieghaus
Skulpturensammlung
Schaumainkai 71
60596 Frankfurt am Main
10.00 am to 9.00 pm
Liebieghaus
Skulpturensammlung
Schaumainkai 71
60596 Frankfurt am Main
10.00 am to 9.00 pm
Liebieghaus
Skulpturensammlung
Schaumainkai 71
60596 Frankfurt am Main
10.00 am to 9.00 pm
The Liebieghaus is forging a unique link between the present and the past by juxtaposing powerful works by Isa Genzken (b. 1948) with its sculpture collection spanning 5,000 years. In the presentation, selected works by the renowned artist will be on display alongside ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman, as well as medieval and modern-era works from the museum’s outstanding collection.
Contemporary art meets a world-class sculpture collection: in this guided tour, you will immerse yourself in Isa Genzken’s work, which is as powerful as it is multi-layered. From sculpture and collage, painting and print to photography—get to know the unique connection between the renowned artist’s personal experiences and her extensive references to art history, architecture and modernism.
Please contact us to arrange your group visit—even if you do not wish to book a guided tour.
Telephone: +49(0)69-605098-200
E-Mail:
Please request appointments for group offerings using the form provided.
Explore Isa Genzken’s artworks in the context of the Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung with the audio guide and experience the renowned artist’s unique style. The app, available in German and English, includes audio tracks and images for 12 stations and has a duration of approximately 30 minutes.
For selected artworks in the exhibition, you can find additional texts in a downloadable PDF booklet:
Isa Genzken is one of the most important contemporary artists and has been a major influence on the international art scene since the 1980s. Her diverse œuvre encompasses sculpture, collage, painting, film and photography and is characterized by the combination of personal experience with extensive references to art history, architecture and modernism. Often dealing with the remnants of material culture and the decay of architectural structures, she uses her own biography to explore central themes such as identity, beauty and the role of the individual in society. She combines an impressive variety of materials—from textiles, cement and glass to stuffed animals and aeroplane windows—to create enigmatic sculptures that reflect the fragility of the modern world. Her works challenge social and cultural ideals, including those associated with the notion of marble-white ancient sculpture. In this way her work also provides a contemporary commentary on the polychromy of ancient sculpture.
Wolfgang Tillmans, Isa, Keithstrasse, 2012
Isa, Keithstrasse, 2012
Courtesy Galerie Buchholz
Experimental colour reconstruction of the bronze warrior of Riace A, Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, 2015/2016
Experimental colour reconstruction of the bronze warrior of Riace A
Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, 2015/2016
Bronze cast, copper, colored stones, silver, gold, asphalt
Inv. LG 133 (On permanent loan from the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Reggio di Calabria)
(Original: Greece, ca. 440 BC, bronze, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Reggio di Calabria, Inv. 12801)
Photo: Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung
Exhibition View, Photo: Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung – Norbert Miguletz
Exhibition View, Photo: Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung – Norbert Miguletz
Exhibition View, Photo: Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung – Norbert Miguletz
Exhibition View, Photo: Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung – Norbert Miguletz
Scientific colour reconstruction of a statue of a woman wrapping herself in a mantle (so-called Small Herculaneum Woman), Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, 2019
Scientific colour reconstruction of a statue of a woman wrapping herself in a mantle (so-called Small Herculaneum Woman)
Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, 2019
Marble stucco on plaster cast, natural pigments in egg tempera, gold foil
Inv. LG 223 (On permanent loan from the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften, Abt. I: Klassische Archäologie, Abgusssammlung, Inv. A 263)
(Original with polychromy, Delos, 2nd c. BC, marble, National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Inv. 1827)
Photo: Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung
Exhibition View, Photo: Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung – Norbert Miguletz
Exhibition View, Photo: Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung – Norbert Miguletz
The exhibition takes as its point of departure the polychromy of statues, a subject on which the Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung is internationally renowned for its research and educational work. Isa Genzken has taken up these scientific findings in various works and translated them into her own formal language. Among the works on display at the Liebieghaus are her reinterpretations of the casts of Nefertiti, as well as works from 2016 for which she created a collage from numerous pages of a catalogue for the exhibition “GODS IN COLOR” (2010). Key sculptures from Genzken’s œuvre, such as “Fenster” (1990) and “Weltempfänger ‘Berlin’” (1991), as well as the film “Die kleine Bushaltestelle (Gerüstbau)” (2012), are included in the presentation at the Liebieghaus, providing a broad insight into her work. The exhibition extends into almost all areas of the permanent exhibition: from the Liebieghaus garden to the antiquities collection and the medieval rooms.
Curator: Prof Dr Vinzenz Brinkmann (Head of the Department of Antiquities and Asia, Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung)
Project Manager: Jakob Salzmann (Curatorial Assistant, Department of Antiquities and Asia, Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung)
Sponsored by: Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain gGmbH, Städelscher Museums-Verein e.V.
