Myth and magic: Michael Werner's stellar summer show of modern masters
![installation view](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/XXZfsx9mKUwSfDc6Uy5X9A-415-80.jpeg)
London's Michael Werner gallery presents 'Flora, Fauna and Other Life', featuring important works from an impressive list of modern masters.
Modern masters specialist Michael Werner has stayed true to excellent form this summer with an exhibition on 'Flora, Fauna and Other Forms of Life'. The show features important works from gallery favourites Hans Arp and Georg Baselitz, as well as influential examples from Enrico David, Paul Klee and Sigmar Polke, among many other exceptional names.
The high calibre works are all loosely affiliated with the theme of naturalistic imagery. All the featured works share an element of the grotesque, the metamorphoric and the down-right scary – such as the distorted actors that populate Friedrich Schröder Sonnenstern's drawings, which are one part humorous, two parts terrifying. There's the mad, grimacing scientist figure of Zynus Theory – whether Demon of Dessication and Withering (1953), or the long-limbed, stileto'd horse of The Moon Rider Official on a White Horse (1956).
Meanwhile, Hans Arp's fluid concrete sculpture, Pflanzengriffel (Pistil) (1959), interplays with AR Penck's patinated bronze S (1985). Both abstract shapes look like dark flowers sprouting from the white gallery space, and provide a moment of calm from the mythical madness. They contrast the other notable sculpture on display, Jörg Immendorff's Gertrude (2001); a bent-double bronze lady stumbling endlessly along on giant shoes.
The 'Other Forms of Life' aspect of the show is covered by the red-splashes of Sigmar Polke's Untitled (1996), where an open mouthed coy carp morphs into a dragon, or a hedgehog, or a snake, depending on your perspective.
'We wanted to create a dark physiological garden,' Kadee Robbins, the director at Michael Werner's London outpost told Wallpaper*. 'We wanted to populate the gallery with real and mythical creatures, plausible and far fetched plants.' This mingling of the magical with the factual takes gallery-goers on a folkloric dream they're not likely to wake from for some time.
The high calibre works are all loosely affiliated with the theme of naturalistic imagery. What ties the exhibition together more tightly is that all the featured works share an element of the grotesque, the metamorphoric and the down-right scary
Flora Fauna
Hans Arp's fluid concrete sculpture, Pflanzengriffel (pictured left) looks like a dark flower sprouting from the white gallery space, providing a moment of calm from the mythical madness
Distorted actors populate Schröder Sonnenstern's drawings, which are one part humorous, two parts terrifying – as evinced in the mad, grimacing scientist figure of Zynus Theory – whether Demon of Dessication and Withering (1953) (pictured left)
Pictured left: Untitled, by Sigmar Polke, 1996. Right: Gertrude, by Jörg Immendorff, 2001
'We wanted to create a dark physiological garden,' explains Kadee Robbins, director at Michael Werner Gallery, London. 'We wanted to populate the gallery with real and mythical creatures, plausible and far fetched plants'
Flora Fauna
INFORMATION
’Flora, Fauna and Other Forms of Life’ is on view until 17 September. For more information, visit the Michael Werner gallery website
ADDRESS
Michael Werner
22 Upper Brook Street
London, W1K 7PZ
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Elly Parsons is the Digital Editor of Wallpaper*, where she oversees Wallpaper.com and its social platforms. She has been with the brand since 2015 in various roles, spending time as digital writer – specialising in art, technology and contemporary culture – and as deputy digital editor. She was shortlisted for a PPA Award in 2017, has written extensively for many publications, and has contributed to three books. She is a guest lecturer in digital journalism at Goldsmiths University, London, where she also holds a masters degree in creative writing. Now, her main areas of expertise include content strategy, audience engagement, and social media.
-
Olympics exclusive: Wallpaper* interviews Joachim Roncin, director of design, Paris 2024
How do you begin to design the Olympics? We pulled up a pew with the director of design for Paris 2024 to learn more about gender-free mascots with a genital likeness and medals made from the Eiffel Tower
By Hugo Macdonald Published
-
LA cool meets modern vintage in Ivi jewellery
Ivi jewellery is inspired by LA's glamorous film heritage
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Hamburg’s new food court Le Big TamTam offers traditional flavours in an irreverent setting
Le Big TamTam, designed by Studio Aisslinger, marks a new era in Hamburg’s hospitality-rich Hanse District
By Sofia de la Cruz Published
-
‘Mental health, motherhood and class’: Hannah Perry’s dynamic installation at Baltic
Hannah Perry's exhibition ’Manual Labour’ is on show at Baltic in Gateshead, UK, a five-part installation drawing parallels between motherhood and factory work
By Emily Steer Published
-
Francis Alÿs plots child play around the world at the Barbican
In Francis Alÿs' exhibition ‘Ricochets’ at London’s Barbican, the artist explores the universality of play, even in challenging situations
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
At Glastonbury’s Shangri-La, activism and innovation meet
Glastonbury’s south-east corner is known for its after-dark entertainment but by day, there is a different story to tell
By Rhian Daly Published
-
‘I am almost an anti-sculptor’: Dominique White on her Whitechapel Max Mara Art Prize show
The artist mines the ocean to explore Afrofuturism in ‘Deadweight’, opening at London’s Whitechapel and detailed in a new film
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
Remembering Rusty Egan's Blitz Club: a place to 'avoid the mob and the homophobes', where the New Romantics were born
As he releases new vinyl boxset, 'Blitzed!', Wallpaper* meets DJ Rusty Egan to talk about London's scene-building Blitz club – the antidote to the late 70s punk scene and a hot-bed of experimental fashion
By Craig McLean Published
-
Suzannah Pettigrew's 'tender and ghostly' new show at Surrealist photographer Lee Miller's former home in East Sussex
London-based artist Suzannah Pettigrew's photographic stills create a snapshot of her Sussex coast childhood, conjuring up a hallucinatory world of memory
By Mary Cleary Published
-
The body, pleasure and play: Beryl Cook and Tom of Finland united in London
Tom of Finland’s homoeroticism meets Beryl Cook’s female-oriented camp as Studio Voltaire unites work by the two artists in a London exhibition
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Zanele Muholi celebrates South Africa’s Black LGBTI communities in LA and London
Zanele Muholi's portraits and sculptures are currently on show at Southern Guild Los Angeles and the Tate Modern, London
By Hannah Silver Published