Vertretung Niedersachsen beim Bund in Berlin
... wiederentdeckt // George Cup & Steve Elliott
10.03. - 22.03.2009
Selected works from “Blacked Out”,
the large retrospective of the artist duo
A few months ago, a major overview exhibition in Wolfsburg and
Nordhorn celebrated the rediscovery of George Cup (1930-2008) and
Steve Elliott (1933-1986). The two Lower Saxons were among the co-
founders of “Minimal Art” in the United States in the 1960s. But their
groundbreaking work was almost forgotten, because Steve Elliott died
early and in a mysterious way. His companion was wrongly convicted
and only rehabilitated in 2007. Thanks to the commitment of the
“George Cup Research Center”, founded in Hanover and New York in
2006, the duo is now receiving belated and well-deserved recognition
and a place in art history. The exhibition “Blacked Out” in the two Lower
Saxon exhibition houses presented the oeuvre of the two artists and
their groundbreaking vocabulary of reduced three-dimensional bodies.
The representation of the state of Lower Saxony at the federal level is
now showing selected works from the two-part retrospective. A large
slide projection is also being implemented, which Cup planned as early
as 1976 but did not realize during his lifetime. On the evening of the
event, two animated and experimental films by the artist couple will be
shown, which were also groundbreaking at the time they were made.
For the guests in Berlin, the films will be set to music live by Peter
Machajdík. The composer worked closely with George Cup in the 1970s
and until his death last year.
An extensive catalogue with texts by A.C. Greenspan, Justin
Hoffmann, Roland Nachtigäller and Thomas Wulffen has been produced
for the exhibitions at the Kunstverein Wolfsburg and the Städtische
Galerie Nordhorn. The retrospectives "Blacked Out - The French
Collection" and "Blacked Out - The Greenspan Collection" documented
in it are a project by the conceptual artist Dirk Dietrich Hennig, who was
born in Herford in 1967 and lives in Hanover. The retrospective,
conceived as an artistic project, was created in 2007 as part of the New
York scholarship, which was initiated by the state of Lower Saxony in
1999 and has been awarded jointly with the Lower Saxony Savings
Bank Foundation since 2005.
Exhibition view:
Vertretung Niedersachsen beim Bund - Berlin ... wiederentdeckt // George
Cup & Steve Elliott © photo: Seth Widman, 2009
