Pole Piece 24

With his works, in which he explores the boundaries between sculpture, object and painting, Gary Kuehn has been a pioneer of process-oriented and post-minimalist art since the late 1960s. Of particular interest to him is the “expressive quality of materials and procedures”, which he inscribes into his works. This quality is also evident in “Pole Piece”, a towering, bent steel tube. Kuehn counteracts the hardness and stability of the steel with the upper segment of the tube, which hangs down as if limp. It appears like an empty, broken flagpole, which can be read as a symbol of the loss of national integrity and political potency. While the work exhibited at Blickachsen 14 in the Kurpark was particularly relevant when it was created in the context of the Vietnam War and the subsequent upheavals in the USA at the time, it is also topical in the context of current global political events.
Gary Kuehn studied in New Jersey at Drew University and at Rutgers University. In 1969, he took part in the groundbreaking “Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form” exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bern, and in 1977 at documenta. Numerous international exhibitions followed. Kuehn taught as a professor at Rutgers University.