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(Hi)stories

Using pictures to tell a story? This technique has a long tradition in art history! Contemporary artists also tell stories in their works. Which historical or fictional events, myths, literary texts, or indeed personal stories are processed in artworks? And can materials also reveal or conceal stories?

Do you sometimes wish for a different ending?

There are countless ways to tell the same story using different images. Historical events, myths, fairy tales, cultural history—they all accompany us throughout our lives. They tell stories and history, often in different ways. Can you think of an historical event that you believe was crucial to your life today? Would you dare to illustrate it? What would you put in the foreground? Does your imagination sometimes continue your favorite stories, or even alter them?

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Artwork Cy Twombly, Lepanto Cycle, 2001

The “Lepanto” cycle is one of Cy Twombly’s major works and consists of twelve paintings that are exhibited permanently in a separate room at Museum Brandhorst. Vibrant hues in a broad palette of yellows, reds, turquoise and aquamarine define the drama of the monumental paintings. The action on the canvases intensifies, all the artist’s painting tools and painterly gestures are used expressively.

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Artwork Laura Owens, Untitled, 2015

The untitled diptych by Laura Owens in the Brandhorst collection is based on layouts from the “Los Angeles Times” from 1942. Sometimes impasto brushstrokes overlay the texts and delicate drawings. The shadows of some brushstrokes are printed, newspaper articles and pictures have been edited and partly replaced by information of a more recent date.

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Creative project Painted (hi)stories

Tell a story in pictures.

Which stories remain particularly vivid?

When someone tells a story, it doesn’t necessarily need to be important for many people, or remembered for a long time. Personal stories based on one’s own experiences, or pretending to be, often have greater effectiveness or reach. They touch us more, arouse more empathy and compassion in us. Sometimes we can identify with them. Some open our eyes to social structures and inequalities, to the perspectives of others.

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Artist Nicole Eisenman

was born in Verdun, France, in 1965. They live and work in Brooklyn.

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Artwork Wolfgang Tillmans, Buchholz & Buchholz Installation 1993, 1993

This room represents an exact replica of the Buchholz & Buchholz Gallery, where Wolfgang Tillmans exhibited his photographs in 1993. Here the artist tested a form of presentation in which photographs, photocopies, and reproductions of magazine pages stand side by side on an equal footing and are distributed throughout the room.

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Artist Arthur Jafa

was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, USA, in 1960.

Who is telling what to whom? And how?

When stories are told about others, storytellers have a lot of power. As storytellers, we influence the perception of the listeners or viewers. Some artworks from the Brandhorst Collection deal with the way history and stories are told in the media. Do they belong there? Have you noticed the kind of languages and images that keep popping up in the news or on social media?

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Artwork Cady Noland, Deep Social Space, 1989

Numerous objects are arranged around three metal scaffolding poles: kettle grill, beer cans, burger buns, American flag, chips and a Marlboro garbage can, plus some insignia of rural America, such as horse saddles and blankets. But the scaffolding poles that frame everything create an unsettling, even aggressive mood and seem to prevent any free movement.

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Artwork David LaChapelle, Recollections in America, VI: Kahlua and Milk, 2006

The photograph is part of the series “Recollections in America” by the US- American artist David LaChapelle. In this photo, a lively party seems to be in progress. But the celebration gets out of hand: a child is given the coffee liquor Kahlua in a flask. A gun and a grenade are lying on the dresser. Is the photo staged or did the photographer take a snapshot of a bizarre party?

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Artwork Lucy McKenzie, Rebecca, 2019

A painted mannequin is at the center of this picture. She is placed in an interior full of specially-designed objects. Marble, wooden and silky materials. A book about the dramatic staging of fashion. And a map of Glasgow, Lucy McKenzie’s birthplace, which is hung as wallpaper.

Does history tell us more about past events or about ourselves?

Historiography wants to record the past as accurately as possible. But history can also tell or contain made-up things. Therefore, there is often no such thing as one, single history. It is not uncommon for fantasies and actual events to be mixed. There are often large gaps in our knowledge about past times and the history changes with this knowledge. Or even depending on who is examining and narrating it, and what goals that person has. That is even more the case with social or personal events. Is it possible, therefore, to speak of a true story or history, or does it necessarily depend on the voice that tells it? What artistic techniques do artists use to tell a story?

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Artist Jutta Koether

was born in Cologne in 1958.

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Artist Wolfgang Tillmans

was born in Remscheid in 1968. He lives and works alternately in Berlin and London.

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Artwork Cy Twombly, Nini’s Painting, 1971

In this work, Cy Twombly’s “doodles” with chalk, crayon, and pencil almost look like writing. We even believe we can read individual letters and words from the lines—for example the names Cy and Nini. But the curved lines do not reveal any message.