Press release

"Confrontations. Pairings from the Collection" brings together pairs of works from the Brandhorst Collection that have no art-historical or formal relationship to each other. These pairings unfold a special tension precisely in their contrasts: they open up new spaces for thought, address our intuition and evoke emotions. Sometimes touching, sometimes subtle, sometimes funny and always ambiguous, they create a conversation about and between art. The exhibition invites us to see confrontation in a productive way, to discover new connections, to question familiar interpretations and to link personal experiences with overarching questions of the present.

What happens when two works come together that, at first glance, seem to have little in common? “Confrontations” invites visitors to test this question in the exhibition space. Unexpected pairings of works enter into dialogue: a Christmas tree made of steel (Philippe Parreno) encounters a single red child’s shoe (Robert Gober); a photographic series from Venice (Tarrah Krajnak) meets a brightly painted rod (André Cadere); a giant Black Hulk action figure (Arthur Jafa) is placed next to a small winner’s podium (Rosemarie Trockel). It is precisely in these encounters that tension emerges—at times emotionally moving, at times humorous, at times captivating.

Artists: Monika Baer, Nairy Baghramian, Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Alexandra Bircken, James Lee Byars, André Cadere, Nicole Eisenman, Jana Euler, Louis Fratino, Lee Friedlander, Robert Gober, Richard Hamilton, Keith Haring, Rachel Harrison, Damien Hirst, Arthur Jafa, Mike Kelley, Tarrah Krajnak, Louise Lawler, Zoe Leonard, Tala Madani, Mario Merz, Tatsuo Miyajima, Philippe Parreno, Pope.L, Richard Prince, Raymond Saunders, Jim Shaw, Amy Sillman, Wolfgang Tillmans, Rosemarie Trockel, Cy Twombly, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Shin Yanagisawa