Lothar Baumgarten's Iconography Returns to Turin at Franco Noero
Lothar Baumgarten (Rheinsberg, 1944) is the subject of a solo exhibition at Franco Noero in Turin, running until October 15, 2016. The show traces his work from 1968 to the present, featuring pieces that echo his 1984 installation at Castello di Rivoli—still on view—which introduced his signature iconography: blue pigment, wall texts in Indigenous American languages, and bird feathers alluding to colonialism and cultural dispossession. A constant leitmotif is the onomatopoeic names South American natives give to their rivers, creating a linguistic polyphony akin to musical counterpoint. Writing and oral tradition merge in large wall drawings, capturing endangered languages.
Key facts
- Lothar Baumgarten was born in 1944 in Rheinsberg.
- The exhibition at Franco Noero runs until October 15, 2016.
- Baumgarten's 1984 installation at Castello di Rivoli is still visible.
- His iconography includes blue pigment, Indigenous language texts, and bird feathers.
- The works address colonialism and cultural expropriation.
- The show spans works from 1968 to the present.
- Onomatopoeic river names from South American natives are a leitmotif.
- Wall drawings merge writing and oral tradition.
Entities
Artists
- Lothar Baumgarten
Institutions
- Castello di Rivoli
- Franco Noero
Locations
- Turin
- Italy
- Rheinsberg
- Germany