Three by Chance   Wolfgang Michael, Norbert Schwontkowski, Horst Müller   10.04 – 28.07.2024

Three by Chance. Wolfgang Michael, Norbert Schwontkowski, Horst Müller

In the exhibition titled “Three by Chance”, the Kunsthalle Bremen is examining the friendship between Bremen artists Wolfgang Michael (*1941), Norbert Schwontkowski (1949–2013) and Horst Müller (*1943).

Michael, Schwontkowski and Müller met in the 1960s, at times sharing living quarters and deepening their friendship. Founded in 1974 and located at Kohlhökerstraße 60a, the shared flat and studio existed for over ten years and soon became a cultural incubator in the city. The collective reflected their common joy of experimentation in art and their search for alternative lifestyles. During these ten years, Michael, Schwontkowski and Müller shared their living and working spaces, philosophised, practiced yoga and discussed current issues in art. In 1978 they presented their work for the first time in an exhibition at the former Paula Becker Modersohn House in the Böttcherstraße in Bremen.

The exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bremen addresses the influences the three artists had on one another. It traces the interaction of separate themes, motifs, and pictorial language as coordinates of late modernism and updates material and spatial concepts that retain their validity to this day.

The project, developed jointly with Wolfgang Michael and Horst Müller, consists of the exhibition curated by Wolfgang Michael and a book by the same name designed by Horst Müller (20,- Euro. ISBN 978-3-935127-55-4. Available in the museum shop).

 

(Fig. Exhibition overview: Norbert Schwontkowski, Das triadische Ballett, 2007, oil an pigment on canvas, © Estate Norbert Schwontkowski / Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, photo: Jochen Littkemann)

Made possible by:

Media Partners: