The reception of Chris Reinecke’s work has long been shaped by her role as one of the key figures of the avant-garde in Düsseldorf in the late 1960s. As a co-founder and protagonist of the artistic cooperative LIDL, she unquestionably deserves the long-overdue recognition and institutional attention now being accorded to her—for her close connection between art and activism, her engagement with tenants’ solidarity, her radical dissolution of traditional concepts of art, and her attempt to conceive art, through participatory experience, as a socially and democratically transformative force (currently, for example, in the exhibition 'Grund und Boden' at K21 in Düsseldorf).

That Chris Reinecke continued to develop her work over the following decades into one of the most original artistic positions in Germany long remained largely unrecognized within art-historical discourse. The exhibition ZEITBLÖCKE (TIME BLOCKS) traces this artistic development from the late 1970s to the present.

The most substantial time block of the exhibition is formed by the 1990s. Works that have rarely—or in some cases never—been shown before, drawn from the central series 'Die Beobachterin verlässt ihren stationären Posten' (The Observer Leaves Her Stationary Post) and 'Die Sorglosigkeit der Mechanik' (The Carefreeness of Mechanism), once again present Chris Reinecke as a radical reconfigurer of artistic and art-historical categories—and their limitations. Across layered compositions of image and text, she collages personal observations of her immediate surroundings (her studio was located in Duisburg at the time), travel experiences, as well as political, scientific, and social discourses. The result is a kind of visual stream of consciousness with its own density, momentum, and force. Formally and conceptually, these works occupy a seemingly solitary position within her oeuvre; on closer inspection, however, they form a coherent link between the painting of the 1980s and the large-format works on paper that have shaped her practice since the 2000s and continue to do so today—the further time blocks of the exhibition.

Beyond the conditions and expectations of the art market and its institutions, Chris Reinecke has developed an exceptional freedom of thought and practice. By continuously questioning her own strategies and concepts, she has preserved an openness and permeability in her work that lends even her most recent works a striking sense ofcontemporaneity.

Chris Re...

The most substantial time block of the exhibition is formed by the 1990s. Works that have rarely—or in some cases never—been shown before, drawn from the central series 'Die Beobachterin verlässt ihren stationären Posten' (The Observer Leaves Her Stationary Post) and 'Die Sorglosigkeit der Mechanik' (The Carefreeness of Mechanism), once again present Chris Reinecke as a radical reconfigurer of artistic and art-historical categories—and their limitations. Across layered compositions of image and text, she collages personal observations of her immediate surroundings (her studio was located in Duisburg at the time), travel experiences, as well as political, scientific, and social discourses. The result is a kind of visual stream of consciousness with its own density, momentum, and force. Formally and conceptually, these works occupy a seemingly solitary position within her oeuvre; on closer inspection, however, they form a coherent link between the painting of the 1980s and the large-format works on paper that have shaped her practice since the 2000s and continue to do so today—the further time blocks of the exhibition.

Beyond the conditions and expectations of the art market and its institutions, Chris Reinecke has developed an exceptional freedom of thought and practice. By continuously questioning her own strategies and concepts, she has preserved an openness and permeability in her work that lends even her most recent works a striking sense of contemporaneity.

Chris Reinecke lives and works in Düsseldorf. She will celebrate her 90th birthday in July.

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