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Exhibitions

Throughout the year, exhibitions at the Schafhof present international and local positions in contemporary art. The spectrum includes all forms of visual arts, such as painting, video art, sculpture, photography, drawing, conceptual art, and installation. Group exhibitions with international and German artists, solo exhibitions with renowned artists and presentations of works by younger or regionally based artists take place in alternation. Applications are welcome.

Annual themes serve as common threads throughout the exhibition program, and facilitate an engagement with the exhibited works through a range of perspectives. A thematic emphasis also fosters a better understanding of art and a more enjoyable viewing experience. Certain themes emphasize formal aspects (for example, Color in 2013, Structure in 2015, and Sound in 2017), while others focus on specific concepts (for example Illusion in 2014, Identity in 2016, and Art and Science in 2019).

The Schafhof features a gallery on the ground floor and a large exhibition hall on the first floor, with a total exhibition space encompassing almost 450 square meters. The barrel vault ceiling and its unusual shape offer an atmosphere unique to the region and beyond.

Current and upcoming exhibitions

Roland Fischer: IN YOUR FACE

Roland Fischer is an internationally renowned artist who is based in Munich. His pictures tackle not only the issue of the identity represented in the portrait but also the individual's relationship with the social group to which he or she belongs. From 1980 onwards, Fischer became the first of the young German photographers to experiment with large-format portrait shots and developed his famous collective portraits, among other things.

Date :

24.06.2016 until 21.08.2016

Roland Fischer: IN YOUR FACE

Dates

11.08.2016
19:00 Uhr bis 21:00 Uhr
To document the Israeli collective portrait, a large photographic composition with more than 1000 individual portraits of Israeli students, a book has been published by Hirmer Verlag and will be presented during the exhibition. ... weiterlesen

 

View in the exhibition

Fotos: Zoltán Kerekes

 

About the exhibition

In our culture the portrait is the oldest means of representing a person's identity. It is now also the most widespread. There is hardly a place in our world where there is no face looking at us, e.g. from a poster or a television screen. A special power is exuded by these images which demands that we look at them. We can hardly look past faces, and if we look at one, we have the feeling of looking at someone and being looked at in return.

It is normally an ambition of portrait art to present the characteristic, individual traits of a person in detail. Roland Fischer's works also pick up on other aspects of the portrait. His famous collective portraits not only display the individuals' portrait-like characteristics, but also place them in the context of the social group to which they belong; the juxtaposition of an individual and group portrait makes this relationship stand out particularly.

The European House of Art is exhibiting a cross-section of Fischer's portrait photography and the important stages in its artistic development: the Los Angeles portraits of the early 1990s, the Chinese collective portraits and Fischer's latest work, the Israeli collective portrait, which also comes with a film Fischer shot in Tel Aviv last year – A Normal Day on Rothschild Boulevard.

 

text about the exhibition in full length:

Björn Vedder: IN YOUR FACE

In our culture the portrait is the oldest means of representing a person's identity. It is now also the most widespread. There is hardly a place in our world where there is no face looking at us, e.g. from a poster or a television screen.

A special power is exuded by these images which demands that we look at them. We can hardly look past faces, and if we look at one, we have the feeling of looking at someone and being looked at in return. In this way a dialogue is established between the portrait and us, in which we ask ourselves who it portrays – and who we are. (1)

As we ask ourselves about the personality represented, we notice a tension between the outward and inward nature of the person portrayed. It is normally an ambition of portrait art to present the characteristic individual traits of a person, the portrait-like aspects, in detail. (2)

However, this (generally) fails to consider two other aspects, namely more general aspects of identity: the link between individuals and the social environment, the community to which they belong, and their characteristic of being a human being. Yet the latter in particular is why we have so much difficulty ignoring pictures of people’s faces: they hold out the promise of seeing another human being, just like us.

The works of Roland Fischer also pick up on these aspects of the portrait. His famous collective portraits, such as those of Chinese workers, farmers, students and soldiers as symbols of Communist society, or his recent portrait of the Israeli students, not only display individuals' portrait-like characteristics but also place them in the context of the social group to which they belong. The juxtaposition of individual and group portraits makes this relationship stand out particularly.

Fischer’s Pool Portraits, on the other hand, focus on universal human aspects by paring away any individual characteristics. As a result, rather than drawing attention to the relationship between our personality and our face, the tension in the portraits between our inner and outer nature instead underlines the relationship between the mind and the body: contrasting elements which, as Fischer says, pull human beings in two directions.


Dr. Björn Vedder, curator of the exhibition


1) Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Sämtliche Werke, Bd. 13, Vorlesungen über Ästhetik II, hg. Eva Moldenhauer und Karl-Markus Michel, Frankfurt/Main 1986, S. 144f.

2)  Vgl. Hans Belting, Faces. Eine Geschichte des Gesichts, München 2013.

 

Works in the exhibition

Roland Fischer, Gruppenportrait israelischer Studenten, 2015. Ausstellung am Lembach Platz München.

Roland Fischer, Israeli collective portrait, 2015. Exhibition at Lenbachplatz in Munich

Roland Fischer, Interview mit israelischen Studenten am Boulevard Rothschild in Tel Aviv, 2015, Video 50 Minnuten.

Roland Fischer: A Normal Day on Rothschild Boulevard, Tel Aviv, 2015, video 47 minutes

Roland Fischer, Chinese Poolportraits, 2007.

Roland Fischer, Chinese Poolportraits, 2007

Opening hours

Exhibitions:

Winter (Nov-Feb)
Tue - Sat: 2 pm - 6 pm
Sun + holidays: 10 am - 7 pm

Summer (March-Oct)
Tue - Sat: 2 pm - 7 pm
Sun + holidays: 10 am - 7 pm

more


Das Titelbild des Flyers über die Kunstwerke im Skulpturengarten im Außenbereich des Schafhofs - Europäisches Künstlerhaus Oberbayern zeigt die Skluptur "SpaceSheep" des ungarischen Künstlers Csongor Szigeti, ein silbernes, halb abstraktes Schaf auf einer Wiese.
Brochure about the Sculpture Garden in the outdoor area of the Center for Art
To download: PDF 10 MB