4 June 2021

Richard Deacon. On the Surface
Exhibition opening in Rheinsberg on 19 June

The Visual Arts Section of the Akademie der Künste regularly presents the work of one of its members at the Kurt Tucholsky Literaturmuseum in Rheinsberg Castle. This year’s exhibition is dedicated to Richard Deacon, a sculptor renowned for his experiments with materials, and will show the group of works entitled Flats for the first time. The exhibition opens on Saturday, 19 June 2021, at 11 am, and will be open to visitors until 28 August.

Deacon’s work is concerned with the interplay between control and chance in the creation of coloured glazes as surfaces. Tile-like objects, the so-called Flats, are installed on the floor like poetic symbols of the quotidian or presented on low trestle-like tables and like a two-sided mirror in the room: the outcome is models of urban miniatures that are perceived by their viewers from above. They can take the form of geometric nets or colour gradients inside ornamental bodies, but also spill out over the edges of the objects with expressive colour streaks. The ceramic surfaces of the Flats are unique and give the objects a one-off character. Depending on their spatial environment, some groups of works can correspond with each other and be rearranged again and again. The Flats in the show are accompanied by a film interview, drawings and newspaper collages.

The series of exhibitions in Rheinsberg started with Jim Dine in 2000 and has been continued by, among others, Werner Stötzer, Wieland Förster, Rolf Szymanski, Alfonso Hüppi, Karin Sander, Dorothee von Windheim, Hanns Schimansky, Dieter Appelt and most recently Thomas Florschuetz (2019).

Richard Deacon was born in Bangor, Wales, in 1949 and lives and works in London. He studied at the Somerset College of Art in Taunton, St. Martins School of Art, Chelsea School of Art and Royal College of Art in London. He was awarded a CBE in 1996 and has been a member of the Royal Academy of Arts since 1998 and of the Akademie der Künste since 2010. He has been professor at the École nationale supérieure des beaux arts in Paris and at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Deacon represented Wales at the Biennale of Art in Venice in 2007 and participated in the Skulptur Projekte Münster in 1987 and 1997 and in documenta IX in 1992. Awards: 1987 Turner Prize, Ernst Franz Vogelmann-Preis für Skulptur in 2017 and the Will Grohmann Prize in 2004.

Exhibition details
Richard Deacon. On the Surface
Exhibition from 19 June to 28 August 2021
Kurt Tucholsky Literaturmuseum in Rheinsberg Castle
16831 Rheinsberg, Tel. 033931 39007, www.tucholsky-museum.de
Tue – Sun 10 am – 12.30 pm and 1 – 5.30 pm, admission EUR 4/3

Opening: Saturday, 19 June 2021, 11 am
Welcome addresses by Peter Böthig, Director of the Kurt Tucholsky Literaturmuseum in Rheinsberg Palace, Angela Lammert, Head of Special Projects of the Visual Arts Section of the Akademie der Künste, and Julian Heynen, curator for and author on contemporary art

The exhibition is being realised in cooperation between the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, and the Kurt Tucholsky Literaturmuseum in Rheinsberg Castle.