The exhibition “Over the under the over” is not a retrospective but is focused on a selection of works created in the last ten years. The catalogue therefore documents a completely new body of work by the artist, which differs significantly to his famous “New Wild Ones“ projects from the 1980s.

The conflict between objectivity and pure abstraction is a striking characteristic of this exhibition, which also includes a selection of collages and drawings. More than half of the works shown here are being presented to the public for the first time, for example the new series of paintings entitled PM Paintings (PM being an abbreviation for printed matter or pentimenti), approximately 30 works dating between 2006 and 2008.

“I now paint using several layers of pigment, abstract structures, I pour on the paint, I smear it, I spread it, I use paint rollers, all-over structures, I use slide projectors – and respond to coincidental results.” (Middendorf, 2008)

biography

1953 Born in Dinklage

1973-1979 Studies at the Hochschule der schönen Künste, Berlin (attends K. H. Hödicke’s master class)

1977 Co-founder of the legendary Galerie am Moritzplatz in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin and member of the “New Wild Ones” group of artists

1979 Lectures in experimental film at the Hochschule der schönen Künste, Berlin

1981 DAAD scholarship to New York

Helmut Middendorf lives and works in Berlin and Athens