Meredith North Colloquium

"Serielle Formationen: A Historical Overview"

Serielle Formationen in the Studiogalerie, University of Frankfurt, May 1967 (Pictured: Charlotte Posenenske, Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin, Peter Roehr, Christo, Hans Breder)

In 1967 at the Studio Galerie at the University of Frankfurt, Peter Roehr and Paul Maenz curated the exhibition Serielle Formationen. The show displayed 67 artists from Europe and the United States, including Andy Warhol, Heinz Mack, Sol LeWitt, Thomas Bayrle, Yayoi Kusama, Donald Judd, Jan Henderikse, Charlotte Posenenske, Agnes Martin, and gruppe x among others. The Frankfurt exhibition provided a crucial yet underexamined node in the ascending Minimal and Conceptual artist networks; yet aesthetically, seriality as a ‘concept’ or an ‘attitude’ was itself an important, if often presumed, thematic issue in broader movements outside of provincial Frankfurt. 50 years later, the Daimler Art Collection in Berlin re-imagined this exhibition once again by gathering nearly all the same artists (and even some of the same artworks) together into new dialogs with one another, in order to explore co-tending historical movements and events. While this presentation examines the history, conception, and planning for both exhibitions, the artists Peter Roehr, Charlotte Posenenske, and Thomas Bayrle also emerge as key figures within this theoretical configuration and posit new avenues for art historical considerations of this time.