Hans Haacke
A legend of institutional critique, an advocate of democracy and an artist’s artist: the SCHIRN presents the groundbreaking work of the compelling contemporary artist Hans Haacke
Introduction
Hans Haacke, one of the most influential political artists of our time, is the focus of a comprehensive retrospective at the SCHIRN. His works are more relevant than ever, addressing pressing social issues for decades.
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The German-American artist Hans Haacke (b. 1936) counts as one of the most influential figures in contemporary art. From November 8, 2024, to February 9, 2025, the SCHIRN is dedicating a comprehensive retrospective to the artist’s oeuvre from 1959 to the present. Haacke has shaped the development of political art like no other artist of his generation.
“Haacke’s work is always rigorously political, but also poetic and humorous. He consistently stood up for his convictions, which include the defense of democratic principles in particular.”
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His direct and theoretically concise works are simultaneously poetic, metaphorical, ecological, and in many respects extremely contemporary. On several occasions, his controversial artistic contributions to current debates were censored from exhibitions. Artistically, he has pursued a variety of strategies, becoming involved early on in the fields of ecology and natural sciences, drawing on approaches from the ZERO group, Minimalism, Conceptual Art, public art, and poster art, among others. As a central pioneer of Institutional Critique within Conceptual Art, his works examined orders or systems and presented them comparatively. The artist himself describes the world as a supersystem with countless subsystems, each of which is more or less influenced by the others. Systemic thinking, institutional critique, and democracy are the major themes running throughout Haacke’s oeuvre.
The SCHIRN is showing iconic early works from the 1960s, his influential real-time systems, pieces that invite public participation, as well as expansive (historical) political installations. With around seventy paintings, photographs, objects, installations, actions, posters, and a film, the exhibition illustrates how Haacke became one of the world’s most important and influential political artists for subsequent generations.
For this comprehensive retrospective, the SCHIRN was able to bring together in Frankfurt major works by the artist from international public and private collections, including: Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; FRAC Bourgogne Dijon Collection; Generali Foundation Collection at the Museum der Moderne, Salzburg; Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin; LACMA, Los Angeles; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; MACBA, Barcelona; the Lila and Gilbert Silverman Collection, Detroit; TATE London, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
An exhibition organized by SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE
FRANKFURT in cooperation with Belvedere, Vienna
-
Curator
Ingrid Pfeiffer
-
Curatorial assistant
Cornelia Eisendle
Frankfurt Poll, 2024
Current work by Hans Haacke.
As a variation on his famous MoMA Poll from 1970, Hans Haacke has created the following visitor survey for the exhibition at the SCHIRN. Here you will find the results, which will be published on an ongoing basis.
Read more
Exhibition film
00:00
Introduction
Hans Haacke, one of the most influential political artists of our time, is the focus of a comprehensive retrospective at the SCHIRN. His works are more relevant than ever, addressing pressing social issues for decades.
The German-American artist Hans Haacke (b. 1936) counts as one of the most influential figures in contemporary art. From November 8, 2024, to February 9, 2025, the SCHIRN is dedicating a comprehensive retrospective to the artist’s oeuvre from 1959 to the present. Haacke has shaped the development of political art like no other artist of his generation.
“Haacke’s work is always rigorously political, but also poetic and humorous. He consistently stood up for his convictions, which include the defense of democratic principles in particular.”
His direct and theoretically concise works are simultaneously poetic, metaphorical, ecological, and in many respects extremely contemporary. On several occasions, his controversial artistic contributions to current debates were censored from exhibitions. Artistically, he has pursued a variety of strategies, becoming involved early on in the fields of ecology and natural sciences, drawing on approaches from the ZERO group, Minimalism, Conceptual Art, public art, and poster art, among others. As a central pioneer of Institutional Critique within Conceptual Art, his works examined orders or systems and presented them comparatively. The artist himself describes the world as a supersystem with countless subsystems, each of which is more or less influenced by the others. Systemic thinking, institutional critique, and democracy are the major themes running throughout Haacke’s oeuvre.
The SCHIRN is showing iconic early works from the 1960s, his influential real-time systems, pieces that invite public participation, as well as expansive (historical) political installations. With around seventy paintings, photographs, objects, installations, actions, posters, and a film, the exhibition illustrates how Haacke became one of the world’s most important and influential political artists for subsequent generations.
For this comprehensive retrospective, the SCHIRN was able to bring together in Frankfurt major works by the artist from international public and private collections, including: Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; FRAC Bourgogne Dijon Collection; Generali Foundation Collection at the Museum der Moderne, Salzburg; Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin; LACMA, Los Angeles; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; MACBA, Barcelona; the Lila and Gilbert Silverman Collection, Detroit; TATE London, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
An exhibition organized by SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE
FRANKFURT in cooperation with Belvedere, Vienna
-
Curator
Ingrid Pfeiffer
-
Curatorial assistant
Cornelia Eisendle
Frankfurt Poll, 2024
Current work by Hans Haacke.
As a variation on his famous MoMA Poll from 1970, Hans Haacke has created the following visitor survey for the exhibition at the SCHIRN. Here you will find the results, which will be published on an ongoing basis.
Read more
Exhibition film
00:00