Charlotte Posenenske- The Viewer as a "Consumer"

by James Rodgers

Charlotte Posenenske (born Charlotte Meyer, 1930-1985) was a German Minimalist artist, active from the 1950’s until 1968. Born into a Jewish family, she was able to escape deportation by hiding with friends and because a sympathetic police officer purposely hid her file. Afterwards she moved to Stuttgart in order to study art under Willi Baumeister, who exposed her to modern movements, such as Neo-Plasticism and Constructivism. She was particularly inspired by Piet Mondrian and El Lissitzky, discovering ways to experiment with the spatiality of artworks and fusing industrial production and art, creating social relevance and usefulness in designs.

Charlotte Posenenske, Spachtelarbeit (Palette-Knife Work), 1960, oil on paper, https://www.moma.org/collection/works/115070

 This can be seen in her Spachtelarbeit (Palette-Knife Work) paintings from the early 1960s, where she applied paint using a palette knife in order to build tactile, three-dimensional form on a two-dimensional picture frame.

Charlotte Posenenske, Reliefs Serie B (Reliefs Series B), 1967, prototype, spray paint on sheet aluminum, https://www.hauskonstruktiv.ch/enUS/collection/collection-online.htm?view=artist&artist=249&object=2566&pos=0

Spatiality in her work can be seen in her “sculptural picture” range of works from 1965-67, where she solidified these principles before her major sculptural works of 1967 and 1968. Her Reliefs Serie B (Reliefs Series B), for example, were made from convex and concave bent sheet aluminum, spray painted with primary colors. Not only do these reliefs deny pictorial illusionism and wane between image and sculpture by manipulating space, they can be combined in any number of combinations to create unlimited variations on the work. The four parameters, as Burkhard Brun explains, are “Shape, color, the number of elements, and their distance from one another”.

Posenenske wrote about the sculptural pictures that they “engage with the problem of space in painting in a new way” and that the problem she reveals “is the tension that arises between the real plastic shapes of the bases and the illusionistic-sculptural effect of the color”. An important aspect of the Reliefs Series was seriality and mass production, resembling industrial products more than works of art. Rather than create unique, one-of-a-kind works of art, her objects could be reproduced unlimited times, even to this day, at relatively low costs. She stipulated that their value would be consistent with the cost of production. In this way she attempted to subvert the commercialization of her art and the pressure of the art market in order to democratize her art and make it accessible to everyone.

Charlotte Posenenske, Vierkantrohre Serie DW (Square Tubes Series DW), 1967. Cardboard, https://www.artinamericamagazine.com/reviews/charlotte-posenenske/

Changeability was also a concept applied to most of her works of the 1960s, especially in her designs for Vierkantrohre Serie D (Square Tubes Series D) and Vierkantrohre Serie DW (Square Tubes Series DW) from 1967. These were sculptures of various polyhedral tube types, made out of galvanized steel and cardboard. They could easily be moved, taken apart, and rearranged. The purpose of this work was to mitigate the authority of the artist and give equal creative powers to collectors, transporters, and consumers. It raises the position of the audience (whom the artist deemed “consumers”) to active participants. In the wake of social unrest, Posenenske was interested in change embodied through human action. Essentially, she offered genuine collaboration to the consumer and an anti-stagnant work of art.   

Charlotte Posenenske, Drehflugel Serie E (Revolving Vanes Series E), 1967, https://www.hatjecantz.de/minimal-art-5850-0.html?article_id=5850&clang=0

Despite the claim for audience collaboration, Vierkantrohre never realized this intention because the public at large does not rearrange the objects. Her last realized work in her lifetime rectifies this. Drehflugel Serie E (Revolving Vanes Series E) from 1967 (fig. 3), square prisms made from wooden boards which revolve and open. Again, there is emphasis on ‘consumer’ participation in the aesthetic experience. In addition, the construction elements of both the Drehflugel and the Vierkantrohre are clearly discernible, pointing towards the industrial production and physical labor involved.

Overall, her ouvre was intended to address social problems and be a platform for change. During her career in the 1960s, when she was living in Frankfurt, a great deal of political unrest and social activism was taking place, such as protests against nuclear weapons, demonstrations for a reunification of Germany, and student protests against the European war. Famously in 1968 she came to the difficult conclusion that art is not an effective solution in a statement that became known as her “Manifesto”, first published in Art International. The manifesto is a statement of her primary artistic principles and a farewell to the art world, claiming that “art cannot contribute to the solution of urgent social problems”. She professes that “the things I make are variable, as simple as possible, reproducible”, they can “always be rearranged”, and that this is left to the consumer “who thereby again and anew participates in the creation”. Affirming the democratic aspect of her work she writes “I make series because I do not want to make single pieces for individuals”. After her manifesto, she ceased making art and participating in or attending art exhibitions.

Posenenske studied sociology after leaving her artistic practices, seemingly finding that despite bringing art as close to reality and interaction as possible, it wasn’t enough to influence contemporary events. Rather than being a disavowal of art and her artistic position, however, it was a recognition of the limit of art’s agency and the realization she needed a better platform to enact social change. In fact, she returned to her art briefly before her death in 1985, accepting some as still relevant, destroying others, and renewing reproduction for her previous works.

For decades after, Posenenske fell silent from the commercial and academic public until some of her works were included in Documenta 12, 2008 (an exhibition which, ironically, she was strongly opposed to) and many publications about her were published. Most recently, Dia:Beacon Foundation in the United States acquired 155 elements of the artists serial sculptures and curated the exhibition Charlotte Posenenske: Work in Progress from 8 March to 9 September, 2019. Impressively, they were able to fabricate a movable partition, Series E, which Posenenske designed in 1968 but never manufactured. These recent works serve to affirm the artists legacy in Minimal and Conceptual art, and to appreciate the continued endurance of her social and artistic principles.

Bibliography

Brunn, Burkhard, ed. Manifesto: Charlotte Posenenske. Berlin: Distanz, 2012

Herbert, Martin. Tell Them I Said No. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2016

Morgan, Jessica, ed. Charlotte Posenenske: Work in Progress. London: Koenig Books, 2019

Morris, Jane. “Dia Show Aims to Place Charlotte Posenenske Firmly Among Stars of Minimalist Sculpture” in The Art Newspaper, 5 March 2019. Web. Date of Access 19 November 2019. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/preview/the-rise-of-charlotte-posenenske-s-minimal-sculptures

Wiehager, Renate, ed. Charlotte Posenenske: 1930-1985. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2009