The Deichtorhallen in Hamburg are planning for the spring of 1994 a comprhensive exhibition of the history of the Multiple in the 20th century. The birth of the Multiple (serial/editioned object) as a special form of artistic production can be traced back to the early Readymades of Marcel Duchamp in 1913. By initiating the re-editioning of his most important Readymades fifty years later {in 1964} the Frenchman living in New York thus introduced the production of the Multiple into the Sixties.
Opposed to the traditional forms of expression such as printing, book-objects, or sculptural editions, the Multiple presents itself as a certain object or installation intended for reproduction. The content of the term "Multiple" streches from an extremely small to an unlimited edition; from handmade to industrial technical reproduction methods. The origins of the art - species Multiple were favored by the sociocultural developments of the time. In the Sixties, a rapidly growing number of mostly young collectors were searching for reasonably priced art objects. Among the artists, there was a growing willingness to break the rule of the "Unique' piece of art, and to democratisize art production. It is no occident that the victory of American and European Pop Art after 1960, contributed greatly to the widespread appearance of the Multiple.
The Sixties and early Seventies may accurately be described as the "Golden Age" of the Multiple. Many artists from the Pop Art and Op Art movements, as well as representatives of Minimal Art have created Multiples. In Germany, an essential contribution to the development of the species Multiple was made by Joseph Beuys and Dieter Rot. After experiencing a decline in production in the 80' s (explainable due to the spontaneous/individualised working methods of the young neo- figurative artists) the Multiple has, since 1990, reattained noticable attention once again among the artists and the art public. Thus nowadays, one encounters not only editioned objects by the still-procluclng artists of the Pop and Minimal generation, but also works by artists working in the Conceptual and Neo-Conceptual modes.
The exhibition "The Century of the Multiple" has as its goal to map-out the development of the Multiple beginning with the Readmades of Marcel Duchamp to the editioned objects of the 60' s {the "Table Objects", etc.) and continuing, with pieces of exemplary worth, up to the present. Simultaneously, the exhibition will trace the path leading from the reproduction of the isolated artwork up to the contemporary refined and autonomous work in editions that artistically, sociologically, and economically approach the status of the unique work of art.
The Preliminary list of artists includes the following names:
Takis, Soto, Agam, Mock, Uecker, Fontana, Vasarely, Bill, Luther, Morellet, Bury, Schoeffer, Armon, Christo, Spoerri, Tinguely, Klein, Manzoni, Broodthaers, Oldenburg, Dine, Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg, Segal, Kienholz, Rivers, Wesselmonn, Johns, D' Arcangelo, Warhol, Vostell, Ulrichs, Hamilton, Jones, Brecht, Filliou, Ben, Kopcke, Schmit, Morris, LeWitt, Judd, Andre, Flavin, De Mario, Sondback, Heerich, Ruckriem, Nauman, Horn, Walther, Buren, Kosuth, Weiner, Cage, Mario Merz, Kounellis, Pistoletto, Paolini, Zorio, Panomarenko, Rot, Ruthenbeck, Rinke, Palermo, Knoebel, Gerhard Merz, Ferg, Kelly, Halley, Paik, Schum, Lafontaine, Sherman, Longo, Holzer, Baldessori, Kruger, Haring, Steinbach, Armleder, Trockel, Levine, Mullican, Schutte, Lovier, Fritsch.
A comprehensive publication will appear about the exhibition.