Zeichen und Wunder. Niko Pirosmani (1862 - 1918) und die Kunst der Gegenwart

Bice Curiger, founder of the art magazine ‘Parkett’ and from 1992 guest curator at the Kunsthaus Zürich, set up her first exhibition in the large hall in 1995. There she showed about thirty works of the Georgian painter Niko Pirosmani (1862–1918), at that time unknown in the West, placing them beside 21 positions of contemporary art. Pirosmani, who grew up in the poverty-stricken region of eastern Georgia and taught himself to paint, painted inn signs and pictures on black oilcloth using archaic, naive scenes from the rural poor, which were later to result in his nickname ‘Rousseau of the East’. He died in poverty, and while he was alive, he came into contact with the art scene only once. Curiger discoverd Pirosmani in 1989, in the State Museum of Art in Tbilisi. In an associative postmodern game, she made his mysterious, insistent pictures encounter famous names like Cindy Sherman, Katharina Fritsch, Pipilotti Rist, Mike Kelley, Sigmar Polke, Robert Gober and Jeff Koons – positions that were highly visible on the art market at that time. They included pictures of people (Tony Oursler’s video grimaces) and animals (Katharina Fritsch’s poodle, Jean-Luc Mylayne’s bird), whose emotional impact was inescapable. Here it became obvious that what connected Pirosmani with these works was their direct and affective appeal to the audience. Matthias Frehner called the selection of works personal and original. But it was very convincing in general, even though there were some thin moments (Neue Zürcher Zeitung). Annelies Zwez liked the ‘counterpoint to the customary intellectuality of present-day art exhibitions,’ and at the same time described the exhibition as walking on the edge: ‘There is a risk of being kitschy and of shock for shock’s sake.’ (Berner Rundschau). But Bice Curiger maintained a balance while obviously setting incoherencies beside each other so that they resulted in a larger, atmospheric whole. This was due above all to her personal vision, which was also to serve her well later as curator at the Venice Biennale. (2011).