2. Language and Material

Perhaps the most enigmatic figure in twentieth-century art is Marcel Duchamp. No one has ever so radically questioned the role of art, and of the artist, as Duchamp did in the early years of this century. His Readymades - industrially manufactured objects transformed into art by the artist`s signature and by their presentation in a museum - debunk the mythical 'aura' of the work of art. He is the crucial figure who stands at the beginning of the second of the exhibition`s four paths 'Language and Material'.

Marcel Duchamp, Fontaine, 1917/64, Private collection
The Dada collages of Kurt Schwitters, Max Ernst and Raoul Hausmann call in question the integrity of the work of art. Duchamp`s experimental ventures, and those of the Dadaists, have inspired whole generations of artists. Theirs is the path followed by Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Marcel Broodthaers, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Merz, Bruce Nauman and - last but not least - the extraordinary figure of Joseph Beuys, who so enduringly set his imprint on the art of the second half of the twentieth century.

The exhibition "The Age of Modernism - Art in the Twentieth Century" makes evident the true impulse within these artists - the impulse to expand the space of art, in order to present a critical reflection of society. This is a path whose end is not yet in sight - as is shown by the work of many younger artists, among them Jenny Holzer, Gary Hill, Rosemarie Trockel and Jeff Koons.

Rosemarie Trockel, Who will be in in '99, Wool 210 x 160 cm, 1988, Collection J.W.Froehlich, Stuttgart