Isa Genzken’s Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, organized by a royal flush of curators is one of the best major shows the museum has put on in a long time. Sculptors especially will find much of interest in Ms. Genzken’s approach to materials, and those curious about German postwar art have a lot to celebrate in the show, which puts on view many works never before seen for the first time in the U.S.

This exhibition, the first comprehensive retrospective of her diverse body of work in an American museum, and the largest to date, encompasses Genzken’s work in all mediums over the past 40 years. Although a New York art audience might be familiar with Genzken’s more recent assemblage sculptures, the breadth of her achievement (which includes not only three-dimensional work but also paintings, photographs, collages, drawings, artist’s books, films, and public sculptures).

Genzken’s work has been part of the artistic discourse since she began exhibiting in the mid-1970s, but over the last decade a new generation has been inspired by her radical inventiveness. The past 10 years have been particularly productive for Genzken, who, with a new language of found objects and collage, has created several bodies of work that have redefined assemblage for a new era. These groups of sculptures range from smaller, diorama-like works to room-filling installations.

See Isa Genzken profile  here.
MOMA museum guide here.

Editor