(born in Bad Oldesloe in 1948)
Julia - Weltempfänger, 1990, titled, signed, dated I. Genzken 1990, concrete, antenna, 33,5 x 28,5 x 7 cm (concrete) 119 x 28.5 x 7 cm (with antenna)

The work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné published by Galerie Daniel Buchholz

Provenance:
Galerie Daniel Buchholz Cologne
Sale Christie’s, Amsterdam, 17 June 2009, lot 205
Private Collection Berlin - acquired from the above

„Fragility can be a very beautiful thing, more beautiful than something that is obviously made to last forever.”

Michael Krajewski in conversation with
Isa Genzken, Parkett 69, 2003, p. 96

Genzken‘s oeuvre encompasses a wide variety of media including sculptures, installations, films, and paintings. One of the best-known set of objects from the artist‘s early creative phase is the „world receivers“ series. The shape of the pure concrete sculptures imitates radio sets, although only the inserted chrome antennas remind us of the actual functionality of a radio.

Here Genzken references communication in the sense of the typical transmission of information, but also figuratively in the relationship of the objects to each other and to the space surrounding them. They represent the link between sender and receiver and assert themselves through their material aesthetics and their presence in the space. Genzken skilfully questions their functionality as an allusion to a possible failure of communication. Or is it rather a reference to the fact that communication is always possible - even via a concrete block?