Hans-Peter Feldmann

Artists

Hans-Peter Feldmann

Press release

The works of Hans-Peter Feldmann (1941–2023), to whom the Kunstpalast is dedicating its first retrospective in autumn 2025, revolve around the questions ‘What is art? Where does it begin, where does it end? Who determines what art is? What makes an artist?’ Even in his early works, recurring central themes can be discerned: everyday life, social clichés, voyeurism, private and public spheres, taste formation, humour and satire, dreams and projections. From the outset, Feldmann consistently pursued strategies of artistic appropriation, alienation and recontextualisation. Around 80 works are on display in ten rooms, representing the entire spectrum of his oeuvre: early photographs from the 1970s, sculptures made from everyday objects, painted-over paintings and large-scale installations. This provides an overview of a body of work that focused on the seemingly incidental and banal, creating new meanings through alienation and recontextualisation. The exhibition highlights how Feldmann questions viewing habits, the role of art in a social context, and the mechanisms of taste formation. His works oscillate between the private and public spheres, between humour and seriousness, between cliché and reality. It is the first comprehensive exhibition since Feldmann’s death in May 2023 and also the last presentation in which he was actively involved. The retrospective illustrates the development of his work over five decades and shows the consistency of his artistic approach, which continues to have an impact today in all its diversity and radicalism.

Curator: Felicity Korn, Head of the 20th and 21st Century Art Collection, Kunstpalast