PERISCOPIC!
Press information
The summer exhibition PERISCOPIC! offers a detailed survey of the oeuvre of Werner Nöfer (b. 1937 Essen), providing an opportunity for viewers to rediscover the German painter and graphic artist against the backdrop of Hamburg’s graphic art scene circa 1970. Nöfer is known for his many works in public space, including a signage system for Berlin’s Tegel Airport. For Hamburg, he designed the mural at the entrance to the Abaton cinema (1970) and, in 1968 in collaboration with Dieter Glasmacher (b. 1940 in Krefeld), the murals adorning the façade of the legendary Grünspan music club on Große Freiheit. The latter was not only one of Europe’s first wall paintings but is in the meantime a listed landmark on Hamburg’s music and club scene.
Unmistakably a product of the late 1960s with their mix of Pop Art, landscape motifs and graphic precision, Nöfer’s works captivate with their carefully calibrated chromatics and formal language. The exhibition will show around 40 of his graphic works for the first time ever, most of them gifts to the Kunsthalle from the artist in 2017. Nöfer’s graphics have often served as models for works in public space – including the silkscreen periscopic, which is almost identical to the Grünspan mural. These graphic works will share space in the show with films, sketchbooks, book covers and designs.
Werner Nöfer’s works have been featured in numerous exhibitions since the 1960s. Influenced by artists such as Eduardo Paolozzi, considered the »father« of Pop Art, Nöfer’s art is often a humorous response to what he sees as the »violence of the technological and mechanical environment« (Nöfer) of his time. In silkscreen motifs such as Blind Flight and Monitor, the landscape or a crystalclear horizon can be read as a »picture within a picture«, a sign of a world dominated by technical apparatus.
The exhibition, scheduled as part of the 10th Hamburg Architecture Summer (May to July 2023), is being organised in collaboration with Jörg Schilling, who has been researching the artist’s work for many years.
