Due to similar professional goals and the rarities, the exhibition is relevant for restorers. The exhibition is divided into two parts: The first part delves into the past of alchemy in the pre-modern era, while the second part is located spatially opposite and seeks connections to art from the 20th century to the present day. This separation is also implemented in the staging. The […]

Due to similar professional goals and the rarities, the exhibition is relevant for restorers.

The exhibition is divided into two parts: The first part delves into the past of alchemy in the pre-modern era, while the second part is located spatially opposite and seeks connections to art from the 20th century to the present day. This separation is also reflected in the staging. The past is presented in heavily darkened rooms with chiaroscuro effects, themed installations such as the alchemist’s laboratory and paint workshop as well as large-format audio-visual support. The present, on the other hand, appears sober in front of the usual white walls, albeit more monumental, as the museum’s two-storey rooms are used for large formats. Short introductions to thematic blocks and individual works can be found in both parts of the exhibition. The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive supporting program for children and adults and a bound catalog.

The historical section attempts to present the complex subject of “alchemy” in as many different ways as possible within a defined space. It goes without saying that the selection of objects can therefore be subject to criticism. For the layman, however, the result is a thoroughly attractive mixture. However, you have to take a lot of time to get a reasonable understanding of the objects from the staging drama. Both the free audio guides and the museum stools provided are helpful here. Anyone who makes the effort will be well and pleasantly informed.

In short, the exhibition content can be summarized as follows: Alchemy is shown as a human longing for wholeness and unity that transcends time and as a symbol of human embeddedness in nature and the cosmos. It must have been a difficult curatorial task to reproduce the very complex and encoded content of alchemy due to the amount of material, the fragility and quantity of knowledge to be conveyed and certainly also the selection and procurement of the loans and the associated costs. A few individual observations will illustrate this: With the help of modern computer technology, the contents of the so-called “Ripley Scrolls” are perfectly broken down right at the entrance: these are enigmatic testimonies of medieval secret language with astounding information symbolism. Many other works are also carefully selected gems for the presentation of the subject. In the context of conservation, the successful display of pigments from the Institute for the Technology of Painting at the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts is worthy of mention. The fascinating variety of colors, which extends into infinity, is conveyed in a simple way through a reflective background.

The otherwise rather dramatic presentation in the first part brought some losses, mainly due to the lighting. The insight into the “laboratory” suffers particularly clearly and disturbingly from this. A more intensive study of the objects presented here is therefore hardly possible. The most successful way of conveying the intended references of our technocratic present to the mysteries of alchemy is offered by an object show from the Olbricht Collection. Here, contemporary art and alchemical riddles are combined in an original and direct way in the ambience of the Wunderkammer. With the meaningful title “Curiosity”, this is the only place in the exhibition where the continuity and topicality of the artistic search for a holistic approach to nature is visually evident. This is achieved by embedding contemporary works in rarities in nature and handicrafts. For example, the beautiful head “Thinking about it” by John Isaaks (2002) and the swan-like sculpture “Quell” by Kate MccGwires (2011) represent current “artistic alchemy” more convincingly than some of the works in the second part, which are spatially separated from the history of alchemy by different staging mechanisms.

The contrast from the first to the second part is harsh, in keeping with the change in lighting, and disappointing in that here one encounters less of a structure corresponding to the theme and the historical part and more of a visual list of artists, styles and terms that do not correspond to the supertitles used in the first part. The selection of works is also not always comprehensible, although there are identifications with alchemy (e.g. by Anish Kapoor and Jannis Kounellis) and evident correspondences, as evidenced by quotations. Examples include the direct reference to Hermes Trismegistos in Sigmar Polke, the analogous ciphers in Rebecca Horn, the wink of the magician in James Lee Byers and the playful use of laboratory processes to ironically criticize the times in the ephemeral commissioned work “Das Chymische Lustgärtlein 2013/14” by the artist couple STEIN-Lenzinger. The poetic name “artist alchemists”, which Germano Celant invented for the arte povera artists, has obviously inspired the exhibition planning to open it up widely. Despite Markus Kottmann’s excellent internet trailer, it takes imagination to label Yves Klein’s use of pure pigment as alchemical, as suggested by the wall text Pigment as Materia Prima. Helmut Schweizer’s beautiful dedication to Bern Porter, inspired by the latter’s rejection of a science that produces atomic bombs and embodied in the installation Melancholy & Heavy Water 12/17-2/11, to whom it may concern, also seems to seek a connection to alchemy. The analogy between banking and artistic work in Thomas Huber’s work complex Die Bank – eine Wertvorstellung did not seem plausible to the author, despite studying the catalog text in the context of alchemical transformation. The show of today’s works thus offered above all a compilation of works with good readability of the wide range of technical and media possibilities and the range of content of contemporary art. It is interesting to note that the irony often noticeable in contemporary works stands in stark contrast to the historical objects shown in the first part. However, the contrast between convincing and unconvincing analogies to the original intentions of alchemy is always thought-provoking.

The exhibition is therefore worth seeing for restorers primarily because of the rarities shown in the historical section, but also because of the interesting accompanying program, such as the lecture by Doris Oltrogges from the Institute for Restoration and Conservation Science at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences on the subject of “Vermilion and saffron yellow – secrets of medieval paint production”. Who better to appreciate the infinite mysteriousness of colors and smile at the simmering of hidden ingredients than fellow experts? Thus one delights in the many material and thematic affinities to one’s own work and can relate the topicality of some of the truths expressed in the catalog to one’s own goals with a smile, such as Lawrence M. Principle’s words in the catalog, p. 21:

“Early alchemists … correlated practical knowledge and empirical observation with theoretical and philosophical insights, creating a new discipline that combined theory and practice, intellectual and practical work.”

Art and alchemy – The secret of transformation
Until 10.08.2014, SMKD Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf
The exhibition is accompanied by a hardcover catalog published by Hirmer Verlag, € 29.90.