Hamburger Kunsthalle presents the New Exhibition "MAN SON 1969"

Written by Kal Raustiala Wednesday, 16 November 2011 23:12

Hamburg, Germany - The Hamburger Kunsthalle presents today Man Son 1969 - The Horror of the Situation, on view through April 26, 2009. The exhibition "MAN SON 1969. The Horror of the Situation" explores the lure and danger of extremes. It takes as its starting point a series of historical events in aesthetics and politics, lifestyle and counterculture in the 1960s, the significance of which is a subject of continuing heated debate. Thirty-five international contemporary artists have been invited to look back at the events of 1969 and contribute new works that articulate the ambivalence of extremes in that era of far-reaching social transformation.

These contemporary positions will be juxtaposed with three paintings from different historical eras, including Master Francke’s Christ as the Man of Sorrows and George Grosz’s John the Sex Murderer. Charles Manson, a central figure of American hippie culture, is believed to have instigated the murders of Sharon Tate and six other people, a crime for which he is currently serving life in prison. As the subject of intense and controversial media interest, the name and persona of Charles Manson provide a framework for the context of the exhibition as a whole.

The brutal murders committed by the so-called ‘Manson Family’ in Hollywood on 9 and 10 August 1969 shocked the media-consuming public. The friendly and peaceful mood that surrounded the Woodstock festival, held from 15 – 18 August 1969 in New York State, was shattered by the tragic death of a man on 6 December during the Rolling Stones’ performance at a rock festival in Altamont/California. To many people, ‘flower power’ no longer seemed to represent just an innocent desire for peace. In a parallel development, the Western student movements also became more radical during this period.

In his painting John the Sex Murderer from November 1918, George Grosz (1893–1959) transforms the motif of Eros and Thanatos into an imaginary murder. Despite the different interpretations of this painting, Grosz’s formal vocabulary is generally perceived as a criticism of the social and political conditions of the Weimar Republic. His work and critical approach has had a profound influence on other artists, including the American painter Joe Coleman.

The title of the exhibition is borrowed from Manson himself, whose portrait appeared on the cover of Life Magazine in 1969 and who remains a subject of media interest and debate to this day. For around two and a half years – from late 1967 until 1969 – Manson lived with his so-called ‘family’ in a kind of rural commune in California. He is believed to have incited the murders of Sharon Tate and at least six other people in Hollywood. He justified these actions with a paranoid, imagined threat of a race war he called ‘Helter Skelter’ after the Beatles song of the same name. Following a six-month manhunt, Manson and five of his followers were sentenced to death for mass murder. Due to the temporary abolition of the death penalty in California (1972–1977), however, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. Manson is currently detained in the maximum security Corcoran State prison in California. The term ‘Man Son’ is a variant spelling Manson himself used for a time.

The exhibition opens with three paintings from three different eras. A medieval ‘man of sorrows’ and a modern day depiction of a sexually motivated murder from the collection of the Hamburger Kunsthalle are presented here alongside a contemporary position that revisits both of these themes.

These examples from three different eras respond to the horror of the situation in different ways. In the medieval painting it is associated with the individual’s hope for salvation, whereas Grosz’s artistic efforts at the time of the First World War were aimed at achieving social change in this world. Coleman’s criticism, on the other hand, is expressed through ‘fine painting’ worthy of the old masters combined with humour and a sense of the grotesque. The juxtaposition of historical and contemporary positions reveals intersecting avenues of logic, parallels and contradictions between events in Europe and the United States; it would therefore seem worthwhile to take a fresh look at the 1960s and their subsequent impact.

The exhibition features artists from several generations, including: Mario Asef, Max Beckmann, Joseph Beuys, Achim Bitter, Günter Brus, Joe Coleman, Lutz Dammbeck, Dellbrügge & de Moll, Bogomir Ecker, Martin Eder, Bob Flanagan/Sheree Rose, Meister Francke, Peter Friedl, Till Gerhard, Douglas Gordon, Dan Graham, George Grosz, Rudolf Herz, Elmar Hess, Jenny Holzer, Andreas Hofer, Laura Honse, Franka Hörnschemeyer, Stephan Huber, Stefan Hunstein, Ilya Kabakov, Edward Kienholz, Susanne Klein, Elena Kovylina, Thomas Kunzmann, Sigalit Landau, Almut Linde, Teresa Margolles, Josephine Meckseper, Stefan Micheel, Aurelia Mihai, M + M, Ronald Nameth, Bruce Nauman, Rotraut Pape, Karin Missy Paule, Susi Pop, Astrid Proll, Chris Reinecke, Annamaria und Marzio Sala, Gregor Schneider, Dennis Scholl, Andreas Seltzer, Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman, Die Tödliche Doris, Susanne Weirich, and Günter Zint.

A website and a catalogue is published to accompany the exhibition. Along with comprehensive information on all the artistic contributions, it will include essays by Bommi Baumann, Truman Capote, Ursula Cyriax, Belinda Grace Gardner, Gunnar Gerlach, Tom Kummer, Jan Metzler, Astrid Proll, Susanne Pfeffer and Nora Sdun, as well as an introduction by Frank Barth and Dirck Möllmann. The catalogue is available from the museum shop for EUR 9. For further information: www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de/manson . Exhibition curators: Frank Barth and Dirck Möllmann.

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