One of the great beauties of art school-based galleries is the fact they are able to present a rolling programme of exhibitions which can often go straight to the heart of contemporary art history.
The latest to be presented by the curatorial team at Dundee's Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design is devoted to the work of German conceptual artist Anna Oppermann, who died in 1993 at the age of 53. Oppermann was particularly vocal when it came to speaking out about problems of sexism and the role of women artists in the context of the 1970s/1980s male-dominated art scene. These concerns feature frequently in her work, which came to prominence when a selection was exhibited at last year's Frieze Masters fair in London.
The Dundee show is the first major UK exhibition of Oppermann's work, and includes Cotoneaster Horizontalis (Anticommunication design), her highly celebrated 1982 'Ensemble' (the name she gave to her constructed sculptural pieces). Oppermann's Ensembles are captivating sculptural situations, composed of hundreds and often thousands of drawings, paintings, photographs, texts, slogans and objects. Through these distinctive art works, she laid bare the process of perception, awareness and the very act of thought itself.
Oppermann created more than 70 of these Ensembles, showing them during the 1970s and 1980s. Since her early death, her work has been shown in major solo presentations at the MoMA PS1 (1999), the Generali Foundation Vienna (2007), 30th São Paulo Biennial (2012) and at Frieze Masters (2013).
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