THE SCHIRN’S 2014 EXHIBITION YEAR

Frankfurt is situated on the river Main, Paris on the Seine; we have the Lerchesberg, and Paris Montmartre--however, the elevated Parisian district with its unparalleled cultural history has a very different reputation. This is where something formed for the first time that today would be referred to as a "scene": in the late 19th, early 20th century, poets, composers, painters, sculptors, and actors lived in the special atmosphere of the district. Our exhibition Esprit Montmartre: Bohemian Life in Paris around 1900 presents the artistic and social aspects of this unique biotope of human creativity--and at the same time gives us an opportunity to bring masterpieces by Picasso, van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, Valadon, Bonnard, and many others to Frankfurt on the occasion of the exhibition.

Not only Paris, but the whole world is familiar with Tobias Rehberger. However, his trenchant, waggish works have not yet been presented in a large-scale solo exhibition in his hometown of Frankfurt, where he lives, teaches, works, acts as a sponsor, and celebrates. We want, we have to change that, which is why we have developed an extraordinary, extensive presentation of his work at the Schirn from the past twenty years with the title Home and Away and Outside. And the opening, with numerous friends and people from both sides of the river Main who have accompanied him throughout his artistic career, promises to be a memorable event. One or the other of Rehberger's works have hypnotic features, such as the visually shimmering dazzle camouflage works in Op Art style. And it will also get hypnotic in the spring with Daniele Buetti's large-scale installation It's All in the Mind, which will transform the Rotunda into a space for mental and color cleansing. It has become time for a little bit of "new age" and "rebirthing" under the banner of art.

The fitting reply to this will then be provided by the exhibition Infinite Jest. And anyone who has not yet read David Foster Wallace’s novel or at least attempted to do so has until summer to catch up. Because now there is not a movie tie-in book but rather a tie-in exhibition with wonderful works by Maurizio Cattelan, Damien Hirst, Daniel Richter, Ryan Trecartin, and others who address our postmodern society with its oscillating penchant for total euphoria and abysmal depression. The presentation creates an image of our current day and age that is marked not only by fixing our eyes on ourselves but also by fixing them on others. And because it is always pleasant to see what others, above all the stars and starlets of this world are doing, we are concentrating on those who for nearly the last half a century have supplied the public with exclusive photographs: the paparazzi. Their timeless recipe (for success) is: secretly pursuing and stalking famous celebrities and publishing unexpected, intimate, and purportedly secret things about them. Whether Jackie Kennedy, Marlon Brando, Lady Di, Britney Spears, or Paris Hilton, they all lived and live with, and in particular from, paparazzi photography. With Paparazzi: Photographers, Stars, and Artists, the Schirn and the Centre Pompidou-Metz set out on an art-sociological journey to bring light to this modern myth and demonstrate how paparazzi aesthetics has had a major influence on artists such as Richard Avedon, Terry Richardson, Cindy Sherman, or Andy Warhol.

In the fall--with Finland, this year's guest of honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair--it will become especially powerful. We will encounter the fascinating oeuvre of the Finish painter Helene Schjerfbeck, who in her home country is venerated beyond all measure. Largely unknown in Germany, in collaboration with our Finish colleagues at the Ateneum Art Museum we are bringing outstanding works by one of the most important artists of the first half of the 20th century to Frankfurt. The paintings and self-portraits by Helene Schjerfbeck relate a great deal about her artistic inspiration--which she found in the Old Masters--and especially about her profound search for herself.

And of course it is not just the recently released Artpop album by Lady Gaga that has prompted the spirited new discussion about present and past pop culture. Our large-scale survey exhibition German Pop travels back into the sixties, where many of the phenomena in our contemporary art and culture originated. But our interest is not directed toward the art metropolises of London or New York. Rather, we are presenting the specifically German manifestation of the phenomenon—beyond and in the heart of the middle-class sense of taste and the typical German Gemütlichkeit of the sixties. Visitors to the exhibition can look forward to discovering numerous well-known as well as forgotten works by artists such as Sigmar Polke, Manfred Kutter, Konrad Klapheck, Christa Dichgans, or Peter Roehr.

While in 2014 one exhibition will again follow the other at the Schirn, for the third year in a row we are producing a popular constant--for art and film enthusiasts alike--with the film series Double Feature. On the last Wednesday of each month, national and international artists will screen a selection from their filmic oeuvre and present their personal favorite film. In 2014, art and movie devotees can expect contributions by contemporary filmmakers Keren Cytter, Mathilde ter Heijne, Neil Beloufa, Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg, Ulla von Brandenburg, and Luke Fowler.