Die Qualität der Malerei Alex Wissel, Carolin Eidner, Finn Froböse

Ruttkowski;68 presents The Quality of Painting (Die Qualität der Malerei), an exhibition curated by Georg Imdahl bringing together works by Alex Wissel (b. 1983, DE), Carolin Eidner (b. 1984, DE), and Finn Froböse (b. 1997, DE).

Must painting, to draw attention to itself, still proclaim its own death, its eternal end? Must it reach “transitively” beyond the picture frame into the room, then stand beside itself (David Joselit) and belong to a particular network in order to convince? Does it need, in the context of western art (Westkunst) and beyond, a fitting image, a catchy label? Can its quality (or qualities) be grasped only by someone who understands it as part of a “formation” (Isabelle Graw)? Is its economic exploitabilty an integral component of its DNA?

What makes a good painting? Does that judgment belong solely to the right viewer, the appropriate interpreter, the knowledgeable connoisseur?

Questions upon questions, which the exhibition The Quality of Painting (Die Qualität der Malerei) seeks to raise, hopefully without producing unambiguous answers. Rather, the presentation aims to kindle the voluptas of viewing, in the full conviction that the works of Carolin Eidner, Finn Froböse, and Alex Wissel are open, substantial, and reflective enough to demonstrate the vitality of painting to our eyes, and that it, highly alive, stands within a long, continuous “deep history” (Hans-Jürgen Hafner), which reaches just as far back behind modernism as it is capable of looking into a distant future.

 

Opening reception     2026/10/09      6–8 pm

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