6 March to 26 October 2025

The Liebieghaus forged a unique link between the present and the past by juxtaposing powerful works by Isa Genzken (b. 1948) with its sculpture collection spanning 5,000 years. In the presentation, selected works by the renowned artist were on display alongside ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman, as well as medieval and modern-era works from the museum’s outstanding collection.

Isa Genzken is one of the most important contemporary artists and has been a major influence on the international art scene since the 1980s. Her diverse œuvre encompasses sculpture, collage, painting, film and photography and is characterized by the combination of personal experience with extensive references to art history, architecture and modernism. Often dealing with the remnants of material culture and the decay of architectural structures, she uses her own biography to explore central themes such as identity, beauty and the role of the individual in society. She combines an impressive variety of materials—from textiles, cement and glass to stuffed animals and aeroplane windows—to create enigmatic sculptures that reflect the fragility of the modern world. Her works challenge social and cultural ideals, including those associated with the notion of marble-white ancient sculpture. In this way her work also provides a contemporary commentary on the polychromy of ancient sculpture.

The exhibition took as its point of departure the polychromy of statues, a subject on which the Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung is internationally renowned for its research and educational work. Isa Genzken has taken up these scientific findings in various works and translated them into her own formal language. Among the works on display at the Liebieghaus were her reinterpretations of the casts of Nefertiti, as well as works from 2016 for which she created a collage from numerous pages of a catalogue for the exhibition “GODS IN COLOR” (2010). Key sculptures from Genzken’s œuvre, such as “Fenster” (1990) and “Weltempfänger ‘Berlin’” (1991), as well as the film “Die kleine Bushaltestelle (Gerüstbau)” (2012), were included in the presentation at the Liebieghaus, providing a broad insight into her work. The exhibition extended into almost all areas of the permanent exhibition: from the Liebieghaus garden to the antiquities collection and the medieval rooms.

Curator: Prof Dr Vinzenz Brinkmann (Head of the Department of Antiquities and Asia, Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung)
Project Manager: Jakob Salzmann (Curatorial Assistant, Department of Antiquities and Asia, Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung)

Sponsored by: Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain gGmbH, Städelscher Museums-Verein e.V.