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Natural - Unnatural

Andy Warhol & Yves Klein

The „Natural – Unnatural" dichotomy has been a critical theme in the history of modern art from the times of Charles Baudelaire and Joris-Karl Huysmans to the present day. As a tribute to this critical discussion, Galerie Gmurzynska proudly presents an exhibition of selected works by Andy Warhol and Yves Klein on this theme. Andy Warhol will be represented with two monumental installation pieces: his "Daisy Waterfalls," from 1970-1971, and his silkscreen canvas "Camouflage" from 1986. These large-scale works will be juxtaposed with about a dozen of Yves Klein's "Cosmogonies" from the 1960s.

The "Daisy Waterfall" will take its place on the second floor of Galerie Gmurzynska. Originally commissioned by the Los Angeles Museum of Art under the aegis of its legendary "Art and Technology Program" of 1966-1971, the "Daisy Waterfalls" consist of seventy panels of daisy images, each measuring 46 x 46 cm hidden behind a screen of a real waterfall. While the Daisy images are, of course, purely representational, the waterfall introduces an element of real nature to the installation, thus evoking an equivocal response by the viewer with regard to the "natural" vs. "unnatural" question.

Likewise, in the "Camouflage" work, housed on the first floor of the gallery. Here Warhol plays with the idea of man mimicking nature for military ends. He visually analyzed the patterns used by the military to hide its operations and weapons under a veneer of nature. Like in his "Electric Chair" paintings or his series of paintings depicting the victims of automobile accident, Warhol seeks to discover the inherent beauty underlying the symbols and images of horror.

A more subtle approach to nature is evident from Yves Klein's "Cosmogonies." According to Klein, all aspects of nature interested him: "Men, animals, plants, minerals, atmospheric states. I am interested in all these for my naturometries." However, as he confessed on the same occasion, "for a long time I wanted to temper the whole of nature, with the aid, perhaps, of solar reflectors or some other scientific technique not yet discovered" (Yves Klein, "Le vrai devient réalité," Zéro, Otto Piene and Heinz Mack, eds., Cambirdge, MA: MIT Press, 1973, p. 93).

Although completely abstract, Klein's "Cosmogonies" permanently document the impact of the natural elements on color pigments. Klein succeeded in capturing ephemeral climatic phenomena such as rain affixed by means of a binding agent on board (COS 11) or patterns created by the wind on a sheet of paper attached to the roof of a car driven between Nice and Paris (COS 10 – Vent Paris Nice). The inherent beauty of nature as expressed in these natural patterns can only be made visible with the help of technology (the car, the color pigment), which one would consider as elements extraneous to nature. Klein's ambiguous response to what we describe as natural is perhaps most poignantly expressed in his work RP 5 (Globe terrestre bleu). The work consists of a geoplastic globe of the planet earth covered completely with blue color pigment, whose monochromatic appearance strangely alienates us from the hospitable "blue planet" humankind calls its home.

The concept of the exhibition derives its impact from the interplay of the two distinct sensibilities these artists brought to bear on the notion of "natural – unnatural." They transcend the strict dichotomy between the two concepts and embrace the idea that nature, art and technology form a whole, thereby attesting to their modern spirit.