From the Collection - Together. Collaborative Art Practices

About

In the realm of visual arts, collaboration has often taken a back seat to the romanticized notion of the individual artistic genius. From the Collection: Together - Collaborative Art Practices aims to challenge the myth of the solitary artist and explore the unique dynamics of collective creativity and how it influences artistic production. As far back as Leonardo Da Vinci and Peter Paul Rubens, artists had workshop practices where apprentices and assistants played pivotal roles in the creation of artworks, while remaining largely anonymous. Later in art history, artists began to explore new modes of collaboration, forming groups like De Stijl, the Surrealists, and Dada. While these movements embraced collective ideals, individual practices largely persisted. For instance De Stijl, with figures like Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg, sought a unified visual language but retained individual expressions. Today, artist collectives, such as Guerrilla Girls and Forensic Architecture, occupy an important place in the art world where they often address complex social, political, and cultural issues. In contrast to the individual perspective of the solo artist they consciously embrace a collective ethos. This exhibition showcases artworks from the S.M.A.K. collection that where produced between 1959 and 2021 by collectives, artist duos, one-time collaborators, as well as artworks intentionally designed to facilitate other artworks. The exhibition aims to illuminate the diverse landscape of collaborative art practices and challenge the prevailing narrative of the individual artist.