Künstlerinnengespräch mit Astrid Klein

In the organizer's words:

With Prof. Dr. Stephan Berg (Director) and Friederike Fast (Deputy Director)

As part of the Collection in Motion series, the Kunstmuseum Bonn has set up a monographic space for the artist in collaboration with Astrid Klein (*1951 in Cologne, lives there). Works from the collection are represented, as well as recently acquired permanent loans from the KiCo collection, which are now being shown in the museum for the first time.

In her works, Astrid Klein focuses on strong female characters who confidently confront the viewer. She also works with writing and text fragments, which appear in collages, neon works and a purple carpet and often remain enigmatic.

Painted and collaged portraits show actresses such as Monika Vitti or Anouk Aimée. In the paintings, the women appear next to naked light bulbs, whose sober light emphasizes their expressive faces. This effect is underlined by neon works that bathe the room in a cool light. The artist layers X formations on top of each other, which can be read as letters or as empty spaces and which recur throughout her work. From a distance, another neon work looks like a glistening, blinding, illegible lettering. From close up, a text printed on it appears, thematizing the blurring of human perception.

The purple carpet in the center of the room also becomes the image carrier of a message. Here, the artist quotes from the poem "Engführung" by the Jewish writer Paul Celan (1920 Czernowitz - Paris 1970). In it, the author expresses his speechlessness in the face of personal experiences of violence in fascist Romania: "Came, came, came a word, came, came through the night wanted to shine, wanted to shine."

Participation is included in the admission price, registration is not required.

Price information:

Participation is included in the admission price, registration is not required.