Julie Mehretu, Berliner Plaetze, 2008-2009
Ink and acrylic on canvas, 304.8 x 426.7 cm
Commissioned Work by the Deutsche Bank
in consultation with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
for the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin
October 28, 2009 – January 6, 2010
Acclaimed American artist Julie Mehretu premieres a new suite of paintings that she has produced for the fifteenth project of Deutsche Guggenheim’s commission program at the exhibition space Unter den Linden.
Julie Mehretu is celebrated for large-scale paintings and drawings that layer abstract forms with familiar architectural imagery. Inspired by a multitude of sources including historical photographs, urban-planning grids, Modernism, and graffiti, these semi-abstract works explore power, history, and the built environment, and the often dystopic impact of these factors on the formation of personal and communal identities.
For the Deutsche Guggenheim commission, Mehretu established a studio in Berlin where she produced a remarkable group of works that deals with erasure, decay, and liminality. The architectural underlayer is erased, leaving canvases that seem to shiver in an indeterminate state.
‘Julie Mehretu: Grey Area’ has been curated by Joan Young, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. The exhibition will be on view in spring 2010 in New York as part of the Deutsche Bank Series at the Guggenheim.
