PRESS RELEASE

ALBERT MERTZ
WHY RED & WHY BLUE?

GALLERI KAMBUR, ICELAND 2001

From September 1, 2001, Galleri Kambur in Iceland will host an exhibition of Albert Mertz. The exhibition is organized by visual artist and gallery owner, Gunner Ørn, in collaboration with Albert Mertz’s widow and collaborator, Lone Mertz. The exhibition includes a broad selection of gouaches from the 1980s, along with the piece “Red and Blue Husks” from 1973. Lone Mertz supplements with paintings in red and blue of existing objects in the small gallery house and of stones in the landscape. The American artist Lawrence Weiner accompanies Mertz on this Viking journey with the essay: “I NEVER DID ASK ALBERT WHY RED & WHY BLUE?”
Stalke Out of Space hosts the event, which runs until October 1, 2001

ALBERT MERTZ (1920-1990)
Albert Mertz debuted as a teenager and was part of the experimental wing of Danish art from an early age. His work extended beyond painting, encompassing roles as a filmmaker and cultural writer. Between 1962 and 1976, he lived in France. Here, far from the provincial art scene back home, he developed his red-blue painting style, inspired by international art discourses. He viewed “art” as a shared human concern, a special “science” about being human in the world. He was an advocate for art as a necessary playground for the narrowly personal and expressive, which he saw as a nightmare for Danish art.

He returned to Denmark in the late 1970s and was, from 1980 until 1990, a professor at Det kgl. danske Kunstakademi(The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts) in Copenhagen. His work had an unusual status, which was only emphasized after his death. Through his extensive knowledge of contemporary art, his vitality, and his strong influence, he greatly shaped the subsequent Danish art scene.

In the 1980s, he participated in the international art scene and achieved significant recognition. In collaboration with Lawrence Weiner, he exhibited twice at Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum in Aalborg and at Galleri Stalke in Copenhagen. Outside Denmark, he was involved in major group exhibitions in Paris and Munich. In 1986, he held his first and only solo exhibition in New York at poet Ted Greenwald’s gallery.

After his death, his work was presented at significant venues, including the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1991. In 1999, four simultaneous exhibitions were held across various museums in Denmark, where different aspects of his work were displayed. Vestjællands Kunstmuseum thus hosted an exceptional event titled “Til Albert” (For Albert), showcasing an overview of his conceptual artistic investigations of Albert Mertz’s red-blue proposition. Daniel Buren (France), Joseph Kosuth, Les Levine, and Lawrence Weiner (USA) all created installations at the museum in Sorø.

Albert Mertz is represented in numerous museums both nationally and internationally. The National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen has recently acquired an extensive collection and is currently presenting a part of it in a new display.

Albert Mertz leaves behind an extraordinary and extensive body of work in the form of visual art and unpublished texts, which confirm the fact that he is one of Denmark's greatest artists, who has created works for the future.

On August 4, 1990, a few months before his death, he wrote in his diary:

"Red/blue — I chose these two colors back then because they were clear and distinct and had very little natural association.

At one point, I claimed that they represented Yin-Yang — which they probably also do, but that is not so significant. The two colors should not be burdened with too much symbolism. If the viewer can extract something like that by looking at them, that's fine.

For me, they are essentially two modules, which offer a wealth of possibilities.

Through the constant repetition of the same structure, it may very well seem like an insistence on a specific meaning — but that is not my intention. My original intention was that both the colors and the structure as a whole should, if not be neutral, then meaningless.

The urge to use profiles, houses, crosses, etc., in red/blue arose from the desire to avoid the abstract style."