Amor Parvi or For the Love of the Small
Carl Andre, Marcus Behmer, Ann Böttcher, Ernesto Caivano, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Eduardo Chillida, Natalie Czech, Theo Ellsworth, Alexander Esters, Haris Epaminonda, Isa Genzken, Manuel Graf, Hannah Hoech, Martin Hoener, Line Hoven, Martin Kippenberger, Jutta Koether, Sara MacKillop, Florian Meisenberg, Cyril Pedrosa, Tom Phillips, Nicolás Robbio, Pietro Ruffo, Tomas Schmit, John Stezaker, Simon Thompson, Timm Ulrichs
The return of the small format is a quiet but nonetheless conspicuous phenomenon. It long seemed to be an old-fashioned, picturesque curiosity, hardly capable of bearing contemporary art’s styles, methods and problematic of. But one can now increasingly find small-format works in various fields of present-day art. No previous exhibition has dealt with this transformation, and yet it poses exciting questions: What induced the return of the miniature? What are the works’ qualities and how do they relate to the few miniature statements of past decades?
"Amor Parvi" describes a previously neglected field of relationships, stylistic genealogies and new questions. The interest in the clarity and structure of the small format is shown not to be a modest gesture, but rather an advancement of exacting examination, of “coming closer” and finding a very distinct art experience in this concentrated proximity. And in fact the viewer’s glance often lingers longer on such small-format works than larger works which already seem so revealing from a distance. (Oliver Tepel)