Christian-Philipp Mueller
American Fine Arts
22 Wooster Street, NYC
Oct. 21 - Nov. 11

Maybe we are in a time which could be called "after conceptualism and minimalism." It seems familiar that the manifestations in which art or the idea of an artwork gets its formal appearance after a period of time loses a lot of its initial attraction and fascination.

Not so for Christian-Philipp Mueller. He believes in the power of well known structures and he counts on the fact that people will be bored by seeing this exhibition. From this fact he can be assured that his work is outside of any mainstream and is following up the trails of an art practise that has been avantgarde in the sense that some time ago people have been really disturbed in their view of the world and the roles an artist should play in it by seeing pieces similar to the work he is presenting at American Fine Arts. But a real Deja-Vu never happens in reality. It's only our impression and very personal reception. So what is the secret? Do we need more information than we can actually take out of the experience having seen the show, having walked around these furniture pieces? Should we read about local, national, international? Should we read about masonite in white, black and brown? Should we go back to the early statements of minimalist or conceptualist artists? But this is totally opposite to my idea that where art starts, school is out. That it is simple--simple in the fact that you can stand in front of something with the same complexity of unanswered questions like facing the fact of your existence over and over again without coming to something like a recipe or a weltanschaung. So look again. Is it a perfectly measured balance of sculptural mass? One part local, two parts national and three parts international. What would you do with it? Filling it up with printed media, even then it's not a bookshop. It's happening in a place for art. It's not changing the place of art, nor it's own function. But it's just there quiet like the fact of being alive without having an answer to these nagging questions like: where do we come from and where are we going to?

-Rainald Schumacher

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