Stephan von Huene

Within the field of the west coast art scene of the sixties Stephan von Huene emerged as an artist and was surrounded by pioneers such as John Cage, Ed Kienholz and Allan Kaprow with whom he worked together and with whom he was friends. Here, he created a work of expressive assemblages which, at first, combined impulses from the pop art with the pleasure in concocting and fantasising which in America seemed oddly European. Huene's interest in sound and mechanical movement, however, becomes apparent at an early stage in sculptures and furniture-like acoustic objects, such as Kaleidophonic Dog.

In the seventies Huene moved to Germany where he soon settled in Hamburg. His interest now lay, more than ever, in the interaction of visual-sculptural and acoustic effects in which he involved the spectator and listener as the creator of impulses. His acoustic objects and automats such as Drum and Text Tones soon attracted attention. The figures of Table Dancers were reduced to dancing legs, their movements were accompanied by important speeches from this century and were a highlight of the biennale in Venice, 1995. Since the opening of the Galerie der Gegenwart Text Tones is one of the major works in the contemporary collection of the Hamburger Kunsthalle and after four and a half years is still regarded by the public as one of the most popular works.

Reason enough to show a comprehensive retrospective in the Hamburger Kunsthalle which presents the artist's development from the playful machines of the sixties to the complex instruments of the nineties with which Huene declares his position in the current discussion about art and mediation.

The exhibition shows sculptures, paintings and drawings and was organized in collaboration with the Haus der Kunst in Munich and the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg. In Hamburg it will be sponsored by the ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius.

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