Wolfgang Laib. The Beginning of Something Else

Exhibition

Wolfgang Laib creates his subtle works in an exchange with the natural environment and in tune with the seasons. Whether it be gathering pollen for his famous minimalistic, luminous yellow floor works or the lengthy production of his sculptures made of beeswax—respect for nature is the artist’s driving force. Since the late 1970s, Laib’s thinking and art have posed questions about our being and actions as part of fragile living habitats and in this respect could not be more topical.

In this exhibition developed in collaboration with Wolfgang Laib, the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart is presenting pieces from the most important work complexes in each of the artist’s creative phases. On view are, for instance, “Rice Houses” and “Ziggurats,” a selection of drawings, as well as a pollen field. The exhibition also features Laib’s latest works, the “Towers of Silence.” It thus ties in with an important focus of the collection, since Laib is represented in the Kunstmuseum’s holdings with several exemplary works, and his “Wax Room,” permanently installed since 2005 (in the collection basement), is one of seven rooms of this kind in existence worldwide.

Curator Ulrike Groos, Anne Vieth
Curatorial Assistent Alina Grehl
Sponsored by Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, Volksbank Stuttgart, Zweckverband Oberschwäbische Elektrizitätswerke, MUSAGET, Otto F. Scharr-Stiftung, Helmut Nanz Stiftung zur Förderung von Kunst und Kunsterziehung

Gallery

Wolfgang Laib, Rice Field, 2023

Wolfgang Laib, City of Silence, 2018–2023

Wolfgang Laib, Rice Houses, 1985–2001

Wolfgang Laib, Two Rice Houses in the Artist’s Studio

Wolfgang Laib, Untitled, 2015

Wolfgang Laib, Pollen from Pine, 2023

Wolfgang Laib, Untitled, 1991–1999

Wolfgang Laib, Rice Meals, 1983

Wolfgang Laib, Wax Room, 1989

Wolfgang Laib, Not here, 1996

Wolfgang Laib in South India, 2023

Film

Film “Wolfgang Laib – Here, Now and Far Beyond”

Wolfgang Laib was born in Metzingen in 1950 and has lived near Biberach in Baden-Württemberg for over 30 years. For the first time a film, realized in the context of the exhibition, accompanies the artist at his work in Upper Swabia and at his second home in southern India and captures these areas of life relevant to his artistic work.

Book

The publication accompanying the exhibition is an exceptional and personal book. In it, the artist brings together texts and images that are of particular importance to his thinking and artistic work. Among them are passages from the Epic of Gilgamesh, a poem about the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma, and quotes from the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and the American artist Agnes Martin. A variety of illustrations complement the texts, be they private photos, images of Parsi rituals, or installation views of his own art works. The book offers a new approach to the work of Wolfgang Laib.