Wolfgang Hahn Prize 2015
Michael Krebber and R.H. Quaytman

April 15 to Au­gust 30, 2015

Open­ing and Award Cer­e­mony: April 14, 2015, 7 p.m.

In 2015 the Ge­sellschaft für Mod­erne Kunst am Mu­se­um Lud­wig e.V. is award­ing the Wolf­gang Hahn Prize to two artists: Michael Kreb­ber and R. H. Quayt­man. In con­junc­tion with the award cer­e­mony, a joint ex­hi­bi­tion will be pre­sent­ed at the Mu­se­um Lud­wig, fo­cus­ing on the sub­ject of the im­pos­si­bil­i­ty of paint­ing. The ex­hi­bi­tion will fea­ture the works by Michael Kreb­ber and R. H. Quayt­man that the Ge­sellschaft für Mod­erne Kunst has ac­quired for the ben­e­fit of the col­lec­tion of the Mu­se­um Lud­wig, along with a se­lec­tion of ad­di­tio­n­al works by the two artists. The show has been con­ceived by Michael Kreb­ber in co­op­er­a­tion with R. H. Quayt­man.

Yil­maz Dziewior, who as desig­nat­ed di­rec­tor of the Mu­se­um Lud­wig col­lab­o­rat­ed with the ju­ry, ex­plains: “With Michael Kreb­ber and R. H. Quayt­man we are hon­or­ing two out­s­tand­ing artis­tic per­so­n­al­i­ties. Their joint ex­hi­bi­tion fo­cus­es on a top­ic—the im­pos­si­bil­i­ty of paint­ing—that, for all its time­less rel­e­vance, has gained in­creased at­ten­tion pre­cise­ly in re­cent years. Both artists have long ex­plored the premis­es, chal­lenges, and pos­si­bil­i­ties of paint­ing to­day and have made inim­itable con­tri­bu­tions to this dis­course.”

Guest Ju­ror Daniel Birn­baum, di­rec­tor of the Mod­er­na Museet in Stock­holm, com­ments: “The dis­cus­sions within the ju­ry were quite in­tense, cen­tered on cur­rent is­sues re­gard­ing paint­ing to­day. Quayt­man and Kreb­ber, in­de­pen­dent­ly from one another, have each pro­duced an autono­mous oeu­vre over many years that, how­ev­er, is al­so quite defini­tive for the fu­ture of paint­ing and serves younger gen­er­a­tions as a point of ref­er­ence. The ju­ry’s de­ci­sion is very promis­ing—Tho­mas Bern­hard’s the­ater piece Ein­fach kom­pl­iziert (Sim­p­ly Com­pli­cat­ed) comes to mind.”

On the date of the award cer­e­mony, at 5 p.m., a round table dis­cus­sion with Michael Kreb­ber; R. H. Quayt­man; Daniel Birn­baum, di­rec­tor of the Mod­er­na Museet in Stock­holm and the guest ju­ror for this year’s Hahn Prize; Yil­maz Dziewior, di­rec­tor of the Mu­se­um Lud­wig; and Ju­dith Stake­meis­ter will be held in the Mu­se­um Lud­wig au­di­to­ri­um.
This dia­logue will serve as the ba­sis for the publi­ca­tion ac­com­pany­ing this year’s Wolf­gang Hahn Prize.

The en­trance to the talk is free, please mind that the au­di­tio­r­i­um can seat a max­i­mum of 250 guests.