heiBOOKS

"Art the Ape of Nature – the monkey motif in contemporary art" was the title of a middle seminar at the Institute of Art History in Heidelberg. The result can be seen in the exhibition "Art the Ape of Nature – An exhibition of contemporary art" in the University Museum in Heidelberg in 2013. In the seminar "Art the Ape of Nature – the monkey motif in contemporary art" we discussed the handling of monkeys and apes in art with respect to well-known representatives of recent history of art. Among them were the British postwar painter Francis Bacon, the polit-activist font photographer Barbara Kruger, the readymade kitsch artist Jeff Koons, the expressive "painter monkey" Jörg Immendorff, the feminist action and poster artists Guerrilla Girls or the Street "Artivist" Banksy. In addition, the role of gorillas, chimpanzees and baboons in Darwin caricatures of the 19th century has been studied, also in today's evolution cartoons or in music videos of the Bloodhound Gang, Peter Fox or Modeselektor. Also the Darwinist and spiritualist Gabriel von Max, the "naive" exotic monkeys painter Henri Rousseau or the Dadaist Francis Picabia were discussed in a session each, furthermore the lesser-known sculptor Hugo Reinhold (died 1900) or the Young British Artist Angus Fairhurst (died 2008).

For the exhibition we could convince artists from London, Munich and Vienna, which not only, as Anja Priska or   Gerd Dengler, made works for our exhibition available, but who also, like Larissa Kopp, Eva Blanché and Florian Aschka, created new works specifically for the exhibition.

Banksy is one of the most famous artists today. The origins of his preferred technique, stencil graffiti, have so far remained largely unexplored. “Stencil Stories” tells their story. Beginning in 1870, a line is drawn from stencils for use, through propaganda and resistance stencils before 1945, protest stencils from May 1968, Pop Art and Conceptual Art stencils, from punk stencils and pochoirists to street art stencils and Banksy. Featuring Blek Le Rat, John Fekner, David Wojnarowicz, Vhils, Alex Vallauri, C215, Banksy or punk bands like CRASS and The Clash. Students from the university and the PH Heidelberg contributed texts.