The exhibition BERND LOHAUS focuses on key works selected from the artist’s extensive oeuvre, built up during a career spanning more than 40 years. Central to the show is the monumental work VERSUCH / MIT IN DEM / BEI, a work that was originally conceived for the artist’s 1985 mid-career retrospective at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, now Bozar, Brussels. A contemporary of artists such as Carl Andre and Lawrence Weiner, Bernd Lohaus is best known for his monumental, floor-based sculptures and site-specific works. Words and summary phrases, often carved or written directly on the wooden shapes, evoke an almost human, interpersonal communication. Lohaus’ practice similarly extended into formal articulations composed with stone, rope and paper, and later with bronze and wax. The way the works interact when presented together further reveal the artists’ linguistic interests.

As a proponent of the European avant-garde, the works of Bernd Lohaus (°1940 Düsseldorf – 2010 Antwerp) have been exhibited widely in the past decades, both in Belgium as internationally. In 1992 Lohaus participated in documenta IX, curated by Jan Hoet. Dedicated exhibitions took place at major public institutions, such as SMAK, Ghent (2005), Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (1979), Düsseldorf Kunstmuseum (1980), and, posthumously, Mac’s Grand Hornu (2013) and M HKA, Antwerp (2015).