Distance Extended / 1979 – 1997: Part II

Distance Extended / 1979 – 1997: Part II
Works and Documents from Herbert Foundation
October 3, 2021–June 4, 2023

With Distance Extended / 1979 – 1997. Part II, Herbert Foundation presents the concluding chapter of the project Time Extended/Distance Extended. The exhibition includes works, documents and music by Dan Graham, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Dieter Roth, Franz West and Heimo Zobernig. The exhibition project Distance Extended / 1979 – 1997 started in 2016 and comprises a series of five exhibitions disclosing the Collection and the Archive of Anton and Annick Herbert.

Their collection started in 1973 with the acquisition of Carl Andre’s 64 Lead Square(1969). During the following 30 years, the Herberts will focus on about forty international artists. “We could not ‘not’ collect,” Anton Herbert states, “for us, being interested in contemporary art and collecting has always been akin.”

The three decades which encompass the Collection and Archive are characterised by significant social changes. After the 1960s and the 1970s, where the student revolts of May 1968 reflect a utopian world vision, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 brought an end to this period of optimism.

The exhibition project Time Extended / Distance Extended takes this timeframe as its starting point. The two-part project title, derived from the eponymous print by Dan Graham from 1969, encompasses two exhibition clusters. Time Extended / 1964–1978. Part I, Part II and Part III (2016–2019) explored the early years of the Collection rooted in Minimal, Concept Art, Arte Povera and Land Art. Distance Extended / 1979–1997. Part I (2019–2021) focused on the generation of the 1980s and the 1990s.

Distance Extended / 1979–1997. Part II
Distance Extended / 1979–1997. Part II (2021–2023) forms the concluding part of the exhibition project. Contrary to the previous exhibitions, where the presented works and documents were situated in a delineated time frame, the concluding exhibition establishes a dialogue between the 1960s–1970s and the 1980s–1990s.

The exhibition brings together works, documents and music by Dan Graham, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Dieter Roth, Franz West and Heimo Zobernig. The subjecive framework of the Collection and the Archive of Annick and Anton Herbert highlights not only their differences but also the common ground they share.