GENZKEN, ISA
1948 Bad Oldesloe

Title: Basic Research.
Date: 1989.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Measurement: 75 x 90 cm.
Notation: Signed and dated verso upper right: Isa Genzken 1989.


The work will be included in the artist’s catalogue raisonné, currently in preparation, under number 1132. We are grateful to Galerie Buchholz, Cologne, for their kind academic support.



The painting is part of the series of the same name created between 1988 and 1992. For the paintings in this series, the artist lays the canvases on the floor of her studio in order to transfer the floor’s texture onto the canvas in a kind of frottage. By scraping the oil paint, she transfers the texture of the floor onto the canvas. Although ‘Basic Research’ appears to us as an abstract painting, it actually depicts an imprint of reality as well as the connection between space (the studio) and surface (the picture).



Provenance:
- - Private collection North Rhine-Westphalia (directly from the artist, donated around 1994)



- An important conceptual work from one of her highly sought-after series

- A striking example of Genzken’s innovative technique, combining printmaking, spatial reference and conceptual image-making

- In 2023, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin dedicated an internationally acclaimed retrospective to the artist

- Genzken is represented by renowned international galleries, including David Zwirner, London/New York, Hauser & Wirth, Zurich/London/New York, and Galerie Buchholz, Cologne/New York



Between Minimalism, Conceptual Art, and Critical Reflection

Isa Genzken is among the defining artists of contemporary art and has developed an oeuvre since the 1970s that is as multifaceted as it is influential. Following studies in Hamburg, Berlin, and at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf—where she became a master student of Gerhard Richter, later her husband from 1982 to 1993—she established herself internationally at an early stage. Already in 1982, she participated in the documenta 7 and returned repeatedly to this major exhibition in subsequent years. In 2007, she represented Germany with the national pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Major retrospectives, including at the Museum Ludwig and the Museum of Modern Art, underscore her art historical significance.

Genzken’s oeuvre spans sculpture, installation, painting, and photography, revolving around themes such as urban reality, architecture, consumer culture, and perception. Characteristic of her practice is the combination of analytical concepts with experimental procedures, positioning her work between Minimalism, Conceptual Art, and a critical reflection on social reality.



Basic Research

The painting presented here belongs to Isa Genzken’s Basic Research series, created between 1988 and 1992. The title Basic Research may be understood as referring to fundamental inquiry or the search for origins.

The work presents a dense, relief-like surface in earthy browns and ochre tones. At first glance, the abstract structures remain enigmatic: are we looking at a stretch of landscape viewed from great height, or perhaps a formation visible only through a microscope? Genzken appears to stage an investigation into both the macrocosm and the microcosm.

The method of production reveals further dimensions of the work’s meaning. For paintings in this series, the artist placed canvases directly on the floor of her studio, transferring its texture onto the surface through a process akin to frottage. By dragging oil paint across the canvas with a squeegee, she imprinted the structure of the studio floor onto the picture plane.

In this sense, basic research is taken literally. At the same time, the studio itself—the space in which the work comes into being—materializes directly on the canvas. The work thus also functions as an analysis of its own site of origin.

Although Basic Research initially appears to be an abstract painting, it ultimately reveals itself as an imprint of reality and a linking of space (the studio) and surface (the painting). Genzken’s interest in photographic and sculptural techniques is therefore immanent to the work. Like frottage, both photography and sculpture are processes of imprinting: analog photography arises through an image of reality, while sculpture emerges through casting.

In this seemingly simple yet conceptually layered work, Isa Genzken condenses many of her central artistic concerns into a single gesture. (cf. Christiane M. Schneider, Basic Research, in: Isa Genzken – Open, Sesame!, exh. cat., Whitechapel Art Gallery London / Museum Ludwig Cologne, 2009, pp. 66ff.)



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