HANS HAACKE: RETROSPECTIVE

NOVEMBER 8, 2024 – FEBRUARY 9, 2025

Hans Haacke (b. 1936) has shaped “political art” to a greater extent than any other artist of his generation. Keen criticism of institutions, political awareness, and an uncompromising defense of democratic principles to the point of activism all characterize his approach. His work is marked by directness and theoretical clarity, and yet it is poetic, metaphorical, ecological, and in many respects highly topical at the same time. More than once his controversial artistic contributions to contemporary discourse have been excluded from exhibitions. In a wide-ranging retrospective, the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt will be examining Haacke’s  influential oeuvre from 1959 to the present day.

Hans Haacke: Retrospective, exhibition view, © Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt 2024, Photo: Norbert Miguletz

In a wide-ranging retrospective, the Schirn will be examining Haacke’s influential oeuvre from 1959 to the present day

He has pursued a variety of artistic strategies, working from an early stage in the fields of ecology and science and taking up the approaches of, for example, the group ZERO and minimal art, as well as conceptual art, art in public space, and poster art. The exhibition at the Schirn, with  some 70 paintings, objects, photographs, and installations, demonstrates how Haacke became one of the most important political artists on the international art stage.

Hans Haacke, We (all) Are the People, 2003/2017

Press information of the exhibition "Hans Haacke: Retrospective"

07.11.2024 | The Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt is presenting in a wide-ranging retrospective from November 8, 2024 to February 9, 2025 Haacke’s influential oeuvre from 1959 to the present day.

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Wall panels of the exhibition "Hans Haacke: Retrospective"

07.11.2024 | Here you can read the wall panels as well as the text of the audio spots in the exhibition.

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Hans Haacke: Retrospective, installation view: We (All) Are the People, 2003/2017, © Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt 2024, Photo: Norbert Miguletz

Hans Haacke: Retrospective, exhibition view, © Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt 2024, Photo: Norbert Miguletz

Hans Haacke: Retrospective, exhibition view, © Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt 2024, Photo: Norbert Miguletz

Hans Haacke: Retrospective, installation view: Sphere in Oblique Air Jet, 1964/2011, © Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt 2024, Photo: Norbert Miguletz

Hans Haacke: Retrospective, installation view: Column with Two Immiscible Liquids, 1965, © Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt 2024, Photo: Norbert Miguletz

Hans Haacke: Retrospective, exhibition view, © Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt 2024, Photo: Norbert Miguletz

Hans Haacke: Retrospective, installation view: Manet-PROJEKT '74, 1974, © Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt 2024, Photo: Norbert Miguletz

Hans Haacke: Retrospective, exhibition view, © Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt 2024, Photo: Norbert Miguletz

Hans Haacke: Retrospective, installation view: Shapolsky et al. Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, a Real-Time Social System, as of May 1, 1971, © Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt 2024, Photo: Norbert Miguletz

Hans Haacke: Retrospective, installation view: Photoelectric Viewer-Controlled Coordinate System, 1968, © Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt 2024, Photo: Norbert Miguletz

Hans Haacke: Retrospective, installation view: Oil Painting: Homage to Marcel Broodthaers, 1982, © Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt 2024, Photo: Norbert Miguletz

Hans Haacke: Retrospective, installation view: Oil Painting: Homage to Marcel Broodthaers, 1982, © Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt 2024, Photo: Norbert Miguletz

Hans Haacke, Photographic Notes, documenta 2, 1959, 26 b/w photographs selection), 16.8 × 25.1 cm each, Edition 2 of 3, Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, © Hans Haacke / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Hans Haacke

Hans Haacke, News, 1969, Teletype machine, paper, wire service, variable dimensions, Edition 2/3, Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, © Hans Haacke / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Ellen Wilson

Hans Haacke, Large Condensation Cube, 1963–67, Acrylic glass, distilled water, 76.2 x 76.2 x 76.2 cm, MACBA Collection, MACBA Foundation, Gift of National Comitee and Board of Trustees Whitney Museum of American Art, © Hans Haacke / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Hans Haacke

Hans Haacke, Grass Grows, 1969, earth, grass seeds, 150 × 300 cm (diameter), exhibition view: Hans Haacke: All Connected, 2019, New Museum © Hans Haacke / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Dario Lasagni

Hans Haacke, Sky Line, 1967, C-print on aluminum, 152.4 × 99.7 cm, Edition 1/3, Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, © Hans Haacke / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Hans Haacke

Hans Haacke, Water in Wind, 1968, C-print on aluminum, 39 x 60 cm, Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, © Hans Haacke / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Hans Haacke

Hans Haacke Monument to Beach Pollution, 1970, Slabs of construction material, plastic containers, and other detritus collected from a 200 × 50 cm stretch of beach and put in a pile, executed in Carboneras, Spain, C-print on aluminum, 51 × 76 cm, Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, © Hans Haacke / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Hans Haacke

Hans Haacke, Shapolsky et al. Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, a Real-Time Social System, as of May 1, 1971, 1971, b/w photographs, typewritten maps, 20.5 × 31 cm each diptych, Edition 2/2, © MACBA Collection, MACBA Foundation / Whitney Museum of American Art, © Hans Haacke / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Hans Haacke

Hans Haacke, The Right to Life, 1979, Color photograph on tricolor silkscreen print, 127 x 101 cm, edition 2/2, Courtesy the artist and Collection Lila and Gilbert Silverman, Detroit, © Hans Haacke / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Steven Probert

Hans Haacke, Der Pralinenmeister (The Chocolate Master), 1981, collage of multicolor silkscreen prints, photographs, chocolates, and chocolate wrappers, 100 × 70 cm each, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, , © Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln, rba_d048571_1 / Museum Ludwig Köln, Grafische Sammlung / Hans Haacke / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Sabrina Walz

Hans Haacke, GERMANIA, German Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 1993, Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, © Hans Haacke / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Hans Haacke

Hans Haacke, DER BEVÖLKERUNG (TO THE POPULATION, 2000, View of the installation DER BEVÖLKERUNG in the northern atrium of the Reichstag building in Berlin, 2008, C-print on aluminum, 232 × 178 cm, Courtesy the artist and Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut / Hamburg, © Hans Haacke / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Stefan Müller

Hans Haacke, We (All) Are the People, 2003/2017, Banners and posters, Variable dimensions, Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, © Hans Haacke / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, Photo: Steven Probert

Hans Haacke, Portrait of the artist, 2015, © Photo: Justin Tallis / AFP via Getty Images