فير زملر غاليري Sfeir-Semler Gallery

Hans Haacke

Hans Haacke (b. 1936, Cologne) lives and works in New York since 1965. He studied at the State Art Academy in Kassel and at the Tyler School of Fine Arts in Philadelphia supported by a Fulbright Fellowship. From 1963 until 1965, Haacke taught amongst others at the College of Education in Kettwig (Germany), but returned to the U.S. subsequently where he taught at the University of Washington, the Rutgers University, the Philadelphia College of Art and eventually at Cooper Union. Haacke held lectures and was a visiting professor at several international universities. In 1998 the Bauhaus University of Weimar awarded Haacke with an honorary doctorate. Read more

Haackes early works as a conceptual artist focussed on social, physical and environmental systems and processes. Some of his works even draw near Land Art. But his focal topic remained researching and unfolding sociopolitical structures and such inherent to the art world. Haacke not only disclosed speculations with real estate in his work Shapolsky et al. Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, A Real Time Social System, as of May 1, 1971, but also expresses his critical stance towards the art world with regard to its relations with corporations and corporate leaders. For example Haacke did so, when he revealed the provenance of Édouard Manets Bunch of Asparagus (1974) or laid open via his painting Cowboy with Cigarette that the Cubism exhibition at the MOMA New York in 1989/90 was sponsored by Phillip Morris, a tobacco company. Since the late 1980s Haackes increasingly uses painting and large installations to express his political thoughts and institutional critique.

Haacke had many solo exhibitions, e.g. at the New Museum of Contemporary Art New York, the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven, at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Deichtorhallen Hamburg or the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid. He has also partaken at the documenta in Kassel several times (1972, 1982, 1987, 1997, 2017). His works are represented in many international public collections for example the MOMA New York, the SMAK Gent, the Tate London, or the Fotomuseum Winterthur. Haacke won several art prizes as the Golden Lion (shared with Nam June Paik) at 43. Biennale di Venezia (1993), Prize of Helmut-Kraft-Stiftung Stuttgart (1998), the Peter-Weiss-Preis Bochum (2004), the Arnold-Bode-Preis (2019) and the Goslarer Kaiserring (2020).

Hans Haacke, Der Bevölkerung, c-print on aluminum dibond

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2020

  • 20 Years of “To the Population”, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k..), Berlin, Germany

2019

  • Hans Haacke, The New Museum, New York, USA

2018

  • Hans Haacke: Gift Horse, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA

2016

  • Dreams That Money Can Buy (Update) Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College, VA, USA

2012

  • Castles in the air, Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain

2011

  • Hans Haacke 1968, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge/Mass, USA

2010

  • Hans Haacke: Show and tell, Fondatione Antonio Ratti, Como, Italy

2008

  • Hans Haacke, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, USA  

2006

  • Hans Haacke wirklich, curated by Matthias Flügge, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany

  • Hans Haacke - wirklich Werke 1959-2006, curated by Robert Fleck, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Selected Group Exhibitions

2023

  • WHO WE ARE. Reflecting a Country of Immigration, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany

2015

  • Gallery 3010, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon

2012

  • This Will Have Been: Art, Love, & Politics in the 1980s, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA

2011

  • After the Gold Rush. Contemporary Photographs from the Collection, Metropolitan Museum, New York, USA

  • Paradigm Shift Serralves Collection 60's 70's, MUSAC, León, Spain

  • Beziehungsarbeit - Kunst und Institution, Künstlerhaus Wien, Austria

  • Freedom of Speech, Kunstverein Hamburg; Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Germany 

2010

  • The Last Newspaper, New Museum, New York, USA

  • Taking Place, Stedelijik Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2009

  • 1968. Die große Unschuld, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany

  • MOCA's First Thirty Years, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA

  • Kunst und Kalter Krieg - Deutsche Positionen 1945-2098, Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin; Germanisches National Museum, Nürnberg, Germany

  • Time as Matter. MACBA Collection, New Acquisitions, MACBA, Barcelona, Spain 

2008

  • The Return of Religion and Other Myths, Central Museum Utrecht; BAK, Utrecht, Netherlands

  • The Art of Participation: 1950 to Now, San Francisco Auseum of Modern Art, USA

  • What Was Then ... This Is Now, MoMA PS.1, New York, USA

  • Gwangju Biennial, Gwangju, South Korea

  • Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg, Germany 

2007

  • New York States of Mind, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, USA

  • Mask, James Cohan Gallery in collaboration with Joseph G. Gerena Fine Art, New York, USA

2006

  • The Message Is the Medium, curated by Marshall Reese, Jim Kempner Fine Art, New York, NY

  • Here + Now, Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, USA

  • Fourteen Artists/Fourteen Years: Mahaffey Fine Art, curated by Annette Dixon, PortlandArt Museum, Portland, USA

  • Zero: International Avant-garde of the 50s and 60s, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany

2005

  • Open Systems: Rethinking Art c.1970, Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom

  • Monuments for the USA, California College of Art Gallery, San Francisco, USA

  • Kritische Gesellschaften: Kunst, Kritik und die Versprechen des Kapitalismus, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany

  • Bewegliche Teile-Formen des Kintetischen, Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland

  • Occupying Space-Sammlung Generali Foundation, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany

  • Kontexte der Fotografie, Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen, Germany

  • behind the facts. Interfunktionen 1968-1975, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany

  • MIRRORICAL RETURNS: Marcel Duchamp and the 20th Century Art, Yokohama Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan 

2004

  • A Minimal Future? Art as Object 1958-1968, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, USA

  • Behind the Facts, Interfunktionen 1988-1975, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain. Traveled to Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal

  • Art and Utopia, Action Restricted, Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

  • Beyond Geometry: Experiments in Form 1940s-1970s, Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, USA. Traveled to Miami Art Museum, Miami, USA

  • Moscow-Berlin, Historical Museum, Moscow, Russia

  • 70/90 Engagierte Kunst, Neues Museum, Nürnberg, Germany

  • Bewegliche Teile, Formen des Kinetischen, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Austria

  • Mirrorical Return, National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan 

2003

  • Air, James Cohan Gallery, New York, USA

  • The Last Picture Show: Artists Using Photography 1960-1982, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA

  • Traveled to UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA

  • Berlin-Moskau, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany

Public Collections