#Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg

[rwpohl]

eric fischl, paintings and drawings 1979 -2001

portrait of the artist as a woman, 1989

birth of love, 2nd version 1987

fred, 1998

april in paris, 1998

the bed, the chair, play, 2001

u8, imprint catalogue kunstmuseum wolfsburg, hatje cantz 2003

[manuelamordhorst]

Tipp: Leandro Erlich - Schwerelos im Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg

12.?10.?2024?—?13.?7.?2025 Die Welt steht im Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg auf dem Kopf! Der Mond ist auf der Erde gelandet, Wolken verdichten sich in Vitrinen zu fantasievollen Formen, ein Haus hängt in luftiger Höhe und die Besucher*innen schweben scheinbar in der Schwerelosigkeit eines Raumschiffs – die Ausstellung des argentinischen Künstlers Leandro Erlich bietet für jeden zahlreiche „Wow-Effekte“!…

[pikasus-artenews]

PAOLO PELLEGRIN. Fragile Wunder

A Wolfsburg Paolo Pellegrin, uno dei più famosi fotografi documentaristi del nostro tempo, porta il visitatore in uno strordinario viaggio intorno al mondo

[xtruss]

Volkswagen Sells Almost As Many Currywursts As Cars

Europe's Leading Carmaker Saw Its Net Profit Fall By 30% in 2024, But Sales of Its Curry Sausage, Produced Since 1973 At Its Wolfsburg Site, Hit a Record High.

— By Ryan Hogg | March 14, 2025

Volkswagen Recorded a Record Year for Sales of its Own-brand Currywurst. Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg Via Getty Images

Caught at the most daunting crossroads in its history, fallen German carmaking giant Volkswagen can take solace in one segment of its business empire that continues to boom: sausages.

Volkswagen’s 2024 earnings, released on Tuesday, revealed a 3% decline in vehicle sales alongside a 30% drop in net profits. The carmaker’s rising costs and falling demand prompted the group to agree to up to 35,000 job cuts by 2030 and German factory closures in a bid to turn around its fortunes.

Volkswagen-branded currywurst, however, is showing no signs of a similar downturn.

The VW Currywurst, affectionately designated the component number 199 398 500 A, has been serving the company’s employees and locals around its Wolfsburg headquarters since 1973.

Made in-house by a Volkswagen-employed butcher, the currywurst feeds the company’s tens of thousands of employees across its German plants. It can also be found at the Wolfsburg football stadium and in supermarkets around Germany.

The IG Metall union, which represents Volkswagen’s German workers, confirmed that Volkswagen had sold 8.552 million portions of its currywurst last year.

That’s only slightly lower than the 9 million cars the entire Volkswagen group sold last year. The currywurst sales already dwarf those of the Volkswagen brand itself, which stood at 5.2 million vehicles last year.

The Curry Bus Where Volkswagen's Original Curry Sausage is Sold, at the Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, March 17, 2015. Volkswagen

The business model of the German currywurst is clearly more resilient than that of the combustion-powered car, as the German manufacturer Volkswagen (VW) can testify. According to a works council report, a VW-branded curry sausage was the company's best-selling product in 2024.

Volkswagen, whose restructuring plans have shaken Germany with the planned cut of 35,000 jobs nationwide, and which announced a 30% drop in annual net profit on Tuesday, March 11, has, however, set a new sales record for its in-house currywurst. The group sold 8.5 million sausages in its workplace canteens, in the Wolfsburg stadium where its headquarters are located, and in supermarkets in select regions. That's almost as many as the 9 million vehicles that will roll off the company's assembly lines in 2024, all brands combined.

"Volkswagen is synonymous with innovation – on two, four and many other wheels – and yes, also on the plate!" said HR director Gunnar Kilian enthusiastically on Monday, March 10, on the social media platform LinkedIn. The company carefully analyzed the reasons behind its popularity, highlighting the success of other options such as the hot dog sausage in 2021.

The company sold 6.3 million of its original currywurst in 2024, of which one in ten were consumed by the company’s workers. Another 2.2 million were sold as a hot dog version of the currywurst via retail.

The group also managed to sell 42,000 units of a vegan version of its beloved sausages.

“Volkswagen stands for innovation – on two, four and many other wheels and yes – also on the plate!” Volkswagen HR director Gunnar Kilian posted on LinkedIn on Monday.

“With over 8 million Volkswagen Genuine Curry sausages sold, we are celebrating a new sales record. But we are not resting on our laurels: Our next currywurst coup is already in the works!”

The IG Metall Union, which sparred with Volkswagen for months last year to find a way out of the carmaker’s decline, made a point of highlighting the humble sausage’s growing significance compared with its vehicles.

“For years now, Volkswagen has sold more currywursts than vehicles bearing the VW logo—although such a comparison is, of course, a matter of taste.

“One thing is certain, however: With the current 8.6 million units, VW’s currywurst sales are not only once again outpacing the core passenger car brand’s sales (2024: 4.8 million units), but are also moving closer to the cross-brand vehicle sales of the entire Group.”

The group’s head of food production promised more innovations to the VW Currywurst, including a ready-to-eat version that comes complete with another Volkswagen product, the part number 00010 ZDK-259-101, known by its more common name: ketchup.

Volkswagen sold some 629,000 bottles of its VW spiced ketchup last year, in addition to 25,000 10-liter buckets. The company for the first time distributed its ketchup to customers in the U.S. last year, with the free-of-charge Gewürz Ketchup Brand flying off the carmaker’s shelves.

[t-jfh]

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Untitled V, 1980

Paper collage, 24½" × 16¼"

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Snake Eyes, 1993

Mixed media on linen, 73" x 88"

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Eros and Psyche, 1994

Mixed media on canvas, 132" x 100½"

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

The Red Desert, 1997

Mixed media on canvas, 82½" x 112¼"

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Calligraphic Study II, 1997

Mixed media on linen, 43¾" × 38"

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Painting with Carved Figures, 1998

Mixed media on canvas, 55¾" x 39⅜"

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Black Venus, 1999

Mixed media on canvas, 85" x 113"

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Composition with Gemstones, 2001

Mixed media on canvas, 85" x 61¼"

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Magic Lantern with Rugosa, 2005

Mixed media on canvas, 70" x 139"

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Bardo Triangle, 2009

Mixed media on canvas - Triangle: 64½"

Artwork by Philip Taaffe - Gallery 1

See Gallery 2 (containing ten paintings) of this two-part series at next post, below.

A selection of paintings by Philip Taaffe

All artworks ©️ Philip Taaffe

Philip Taaffe artist biography

Philip Taaffe was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1955 and studied at the Cooper Union in New York. His first solo exhibition was in New York in 1982.

He has traveled widely in the Middle East, India, South America and Morocco, where he collaborated with Mohammed Mrabet on the book Chocolate Creams and Dollars, translated by Paul Bowles (Inanout Press, New York: 1993).

Taaffe lived and worked in Naples from 1988-91. He has been included in numerous museum exhibitions, including the Carnegie International, two Sydney Biennials and three Whitney Biennials.

In 1990 his work was the subject of an extensive critical study in Parkett no. 26 (Zurich & New York). His work is in numerous public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Whitney Museum of American Art; and the Reina Sofia, Madrid.

In the year 2000, the IVAM museum in Valencia organized a retrospective survey of his work, with contributions by Enrique Juncosa, Robert Rosenblum and Robert Creeley.

In 2001 an extensive survey of his work was presented by the Galleria Civica of Trento, Italy (with texts by Vittoria Coen and Francesco Pellizzi).

In 2004 the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in San Marino (Italy) presented a survey of paintings and drawings based on the artist’s explorations with floating pigments and the paper marbling process, accompanied by the Skira publication, Carte Annuvolate (Cloud Papers) with esssays by Peter Lamborn Wilson and John Yau.

In 2008 the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg organized a retrospective survey, The Life of Forms in Art: Paintings 1980-2008, with a publication by Hatje Cantz, featuring contributions by Markus Brüderlin, Holger Broeker, Kay Heymer and Brooks Adams. Philip Taaffe presently works and lives in New York City, and West Cornwall, Connecticut.

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You can find a catalogue of Philip Taaffe’s artworks, exhibitions, publications, reference texts and contact details at his website, here:

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Philip Taaffe reference at Wikipedia:

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[marinasosseh]

Re-Inventing Piet. Mondrian und die Folgen

Viele Bilder von Piet Mondrian waren bei der Ausstellung im Kunstmuseum in Wolfsburg, ehrlich gesagt, nicht zu sehen, dafür aber eine beachtliche Anzahl von Werken, die auf die künstlerische Positionierung von Piet Mondrian auf irgendeine Art und Weise reagieren, sei es, dass das Farbschema epigonenhaft aufgenommen wird, die klaren schwarzen Linien anarchistisch verformt oder seine abstrakten…

[fotopadova]

Pietro Donzelli, fotografo senz'ombra

di Nicola Bustreo

  ---  La mostra fotografica “Pietro Donzelli, Terra senz’ombra” che è stata presentata fino al 2 luglio a Rovigo a Palazzo Roverella a cura di Roberta Valtorta racconta in oltre 100 scatti la visione di una terra lontana dai grandi centri del boom economico negli anni Cinquanta, mostrando come la gente sopravviveva con dignità alle avversità di una terra non sempre accogliente.

L’esposizione presenta al pubblico un gran numero di fotografie inedite dell’autore milanese che incontra le terre del Delta durante il servizio militare sul finire della grande guerra, nel 1945, ma che vi ritorna solamente nel 1953, due anni dopo la grande alluvione che colpì quelle terre.

Pietro Donzelli, Delta del Po. Terra senz’ombra. Il Po di Tolle, 1954 © Renate Siebenhaar, Estate Pietro Donzelli, Frankfurt a. M.

La fotografia di Pietro Donzelli è carica della presenza dell’autore stesso. Se ne avverte la personalità riflessiva e per certi aspetti schiva. Il non cercare l’evento cruciale ma recarsi a documentare il dopo di ogni catastrofe, conferma la peculiarità nel cercare una riflessione di ciò che l’esistenza ci lascia e del come ciascuno di noi si trova ad affrontarla. Lo scoop diventa non più l’attimo irripetibile, ma il lungo istante della vita reale, della sofferenza e della forza di affrontare delle situazioni spesso avverse anche se qua e la costellate di semplici gioie. Le fotografie sono un diario di vita di persone umili. Il fotografo è ancora, a distanza di decenni, il loro più vicino amico e confidente.

Pietro Donzelli, Delta del Po. Terra senz’ombra. Caffè a Rosolina, 1954 © Renate Siebenhaar, Estate Pietro Donzelli, Frankfurt a. M.

A interpretare questo importante autore della cultura fotografica italiana, è la curatela della Professoressa Roberta Valtorta. Le fotografie sono state organizzate in modo da individuare ed enfatizzare alcune peculiarità della visione dell’autore. In primis il rapporto del fotografo con quel paesaggio che si spiega con un sentimento di attrazione tanto intimo quanto riflessivo. Da ciò nascono le fotografie, nelle quali lo spazio circonda e ingloba totalmente l’uomo raccontando, non solo un rapportospecifico dell’autore con quelle terre, ma anche la sottomissione che chiunque proverebbe a quelle terre. Un altro gruppo d’immagini invece parla dell’essere umano stesso mentre si confronta silenziosamente con l’ambiente duro e aspro di quelle terre o del trascorrere di sporadici e semplici momenti di svago.

Pietro Donzelli, Delta del Po. Terra senz’ombra. Cinema a Pila, 1954 © Renate Siebenhaar, Estate Pietro Donzelli, Frankfurt a. M.

Dal lavoro, alle difficoltà dell’alluvione passando per la serie sugli interni e degli oggetti, Donzelli osserva il procedere della vita nei diversi paesini del Delta senza interferire e solo registrando il procedere verso l’infinito del quotidiano. Interessante quanto simbolica è la fotografia del cinema all’aperto, dall’inquadratura lievemente decentrata verso la destra a far intravedere le terre desolate del Delta. Una foto simbolica per la mostra, ma anche perché’ racconta l’incontro tra la cultura neorealista di quegli anni e la realtà delle zone povere dell’Italia del dopoguerra e di un boom economico che aveva escluso i più. Ancora una volta la presenza di Donzelli è marcata ed efficace in quanto funge da valvola di sfogo sia per l’intellighenzia sia per gli esclusi della società.

La mostra di Palazzo Roverella è un colto dosaggio di emotività e razionalità cullate dalle immagini del fotografo e dalla sua ricerca silenziosa, senza ombra, e alla luce della realtà più cruda ma dignitosa. Come cita la stessa curatrice, Donzelli si dimostra un grande autore ma ancora troppo poco valorizzato all’interno della cultura fotografica italiana. Nicola Bustreo

Biografia

© Barbara Klemm - Ritratto di Pietro Donzelli-                                                                                       Kunsthalle Schirn Frankfurt,1997

1915   Pietro Donzelli nasce a Monte Carlo.

1931 Viene assunto come archivista dalla SIRTI, l’azienda milanese che realizzarà la rete telefonica nazionale.

1939   Acquista la sua prima macchina fotografica, una Zeiss Ikonta 6x9.

1943   Viene arruolato nell’esercito.

1946   Si iscrive al Circolo Fotografico Milanese (CFM).

1947  Fotografia diventa l’organo ufficiale del CFM, per volontà di Donzelli, Enzo Croci e Piero Di Blasi.

1950  Con il numero di novembre Fotografia cessa di essere l’organo ufficiale del CFM. Nasce l’Unione Fotografica, voluta da Buranelli, Clari, Di Blasi, Donzelli, Gioia, Orsi, ai quali si aggiungono presto Ornano e Veronesi.

1951  Con l’Unione Fotografica organizza a Milano (Palazzo di Brera) la “Mostra  della Fotografia Europea 1951”.

1957-1963 E’ redattore poi condirettore dell’edizione italiana di Popular Photography. Pubblica, con Piero Racanicchi la Critica e storia della Fotografia, in due volumi.

1960  Sempre con l’Unione Fotografica realizza la mostra “Fotografi della nuova generazione”.

1975 Lascia l’azienda per la quale lavora e due mesi più tardi viene riassunto, con l’incarico di occuparsi dell’Ufficio Relazioni Pubbliche, continuando la collaborazione svolta nel settore grafico e foto-cinematografico.

1988  In occasione del quarantennio dalla fondazione, la Federazione Italiana Associazioni Fotografiche (FIAF) gli conferisce il titolo di “Maestro della fotografia italiana” e la 3M gli assegna il premio “Una vita per la fotografia”. Lascia definitivamente il lavoro alla SIRTI.

1994 Inizia la collaborazione con Renate Siebenhaar.

1997 Jean-Christophe Ammann cura la sua prima retrospettiva che viene presentata al Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg e alla Schirn Kunsthalle di Francoforte.

1998 Muore a Milano, poche settimane prima dell’inaugurazione della sua retrospettiva ad Arles, durante i  Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie.

[rwpohl]

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[manuelamordhorst]

Tipp: Das Ding mit dem Zufall im Kunstmuseum Celle

27.10.23 – 23.02.25 Kunstmuseum Celle Hier tropft etwas auf den Fußboden und da wurden Rechtecke scheinbar willkürlich auf eine Leinwand geworfen. In der aktuellen Kunstausstellung im Kunstmuseum Celle rund um das künstlerische Schaffen von Lienhard von Monkiewitsch wird sich mit dem Zufall und der Mathematik beschäftigt. Klingt langweilig ist es aber ganz und gar nicht! Das Schicksal,…

[pikasus-artenews]

Macht! Licht! (Potere leggero!) Riflessione critica sul potere leggero della luce in una rassegna di artiste e artisti internazionali.

[pasparal]

Bridget’s Bardo by James Turrell Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2009 Photo: Florian Holzherr

[t-jfh]

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Anthology (Blue), 2009

Mixed media on canvas, 39" x 28¼"

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Imaginary Garden with Seed Clusters, 2013

Mixed media on canvas, 97⅞" x 61⅞"

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Double Acrosticum (Deep Magenta), 2014

Mixed media on canvas, 76¼" x 55⅛"

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Tesserae II, 1990-2015

Mixed media on canvas, 40" x 28"

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Blue Manuscript, 2016-2018

Mixed media on canvas, 80¼" x 60"

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Holothurian Passages, 2019

Mixed media on canvas, 79¾" x 114"

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Totemic Figures, 2022

Mixed media on canvas, 88¾" x 52⅛"

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Prismatic Figure, 2022

Mixed media on panel, 62¾" x 22½"

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Flowering Leaves II, 2023

Mixed media on canvas, 60½" x 54⅞"

Philip Taaffe (American, b. 1955)

Illumination, 2023

Mixed media on canvas, 92¾" x 66½"

Artwork by Philip Taaffe - Gallery 2

See Gallery 1 (containing ten paintings) of this two-part series at next post, above.

A selection of paintings by Philip Taaffe

All artworks ©️ Philip Taaffe

Philip Taaffe artist biography

Philip Taaffe was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1955 and studied at the Cooper Union in New York. His first solo exhibition was in New York in 1982.

He has traveled widely in the Middle East, India, South America and Morocco, where he collaborated with Mohammed Mrabet on the book Chocolate Creams and Dollars, translated by Paul Bowles (Inanout Press, New York: 1993).

Taaffe lived and worked in Naples from 1988-91. He has been included in numerous museum exhibitions, including the Carnegie International, two Sydney Biennials and three Whitney Biennials.

In 1990 his work was the subject of an extensive critical study in Parkett no. 26 (Zurich & New York). His work is in numerous public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Whitney Museum of American Art; and the Reina Sofia, Madrid.

In the year 2000, the IVAM museum in Valencia organized a retrospective survey of his work, with contributions by Enrique Juncosa, Robert Rosenblum and Robert Creeley.

In 2001 an extensive survey of his work was presented by the Galleria Civica of Trento, Italy (with texts by Vittoria Coen and Francesco Pellizzi).

In 2004 the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in San Marino (Italy) presented a survey of paintings and drawings based on the artist’s explorations with floating pigments and the paper marbling process, accompanied by the Skira publication, Carte Annuvolate (Cloud Papers) with esssays by Peter Lamborn Wilson and John Yau.

In 2008 the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg organized a retrospective survey, The Life of Forms in Art: Paintings 1980-2008, with a publication by Hatje Cantz, featuring contributions by Markus Brüderlin, Holger Broeker, Kay Heymer and Brooks Adams. Philip Taaffe presently works and lives in New York City, and West Cornwall, Connecticut.

•

•

You can find a catalogue of Philip Taaffe’s artworks, exhibitions, publications, reference texts and contact details at his website, here:

•

•

Philip Taaffe reference at Wikipedia:

•

[abstracteddistractions]

Lori Hersberger, ‘Sunset 164,’ 2006, 

Neon systems, Black float glass, 

164 x 300 x 1.8 cm (neon), 164 x 300 x ca. 400 cm (Installation dimensions),

© lori hersberger studio, courtesy lori hersberger studio, zurich, 

Photo: Hans-Georg Gaul, berlin,

Macht! Licht! ( Power! Light!), Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg