Geometry and opulence are generally understood as a pair of opposites: while geometry stands for rationality, order and reduction, opulence is associated with absorbing opulence, excess and redundancy. A look at the history of art shows that the two are definitely connected, especially when a geometric motif takes on ornamental features or becomes a pattern when reproduced. The art historian Markus Brüderlin remarked in a text from 2012 (published in the anthology Ornament. Motive – Mode – Image ) that the ornamental in the abstract art of the 20th century repeatedly showed itself to be an important driving force and at the latest in the newly strengthened abstraction of the 1980s in the "penchant for the ornamental" increasingly external.///
In the exhibition Geometric Opulencethe question of how geometry and opulence are intertwined today and in which forms opulence appears in contemporary art. The invited artists give a special role to playing with strategies of duplication, compression and spatialization of abstract-geometric elements. Opulence can be found in various artistic approaches. On the one hand, it expresses itself through proportions and imposing formats, on the other hand, a concentrated load of color or an accumulation of materials of any kind can create an effect of opulence or excess. Another form of play consists in leaving the pictorial space and taking in the real space as well. All artists are given space in the sense of opulence, so that the group exhibition is made up of largely independent individual presentations. What they all have in common is that they are interested in geometry and structure, variations and systems in their artistic language and can act opulently.
Artists
