They were considered "misfits", the outsiders of pop, minimal, and conceptual art. The now world-famous misfits have come together for a very special exhibition at the mumok.

In 2020, the mumok dedicates an exhibition trilogy to Andy Warhol, which presents his works in a comprehensive art history context. The show will start with "Misfitting together", which focuses on the serial formations of pop art, minimal art, and conceptual art. The title was appropriately taken from a quote by Warhol himself, in which he describes himself and his artist colleagues of the "Factory" as misfits, who nonetheless fit together pretty well in the end, in a strange sort of way.

Almost 40 years after his last big exhibition at the mumok – Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation Vienna (1981), the exceptional artist's oeuvre is examined not only within the scope of pop art. Rather, the exhibition tries to paint a different picture of that time by also comparing works of minimal and conceptual art with Warhol's images. The list of artist also reads like a who's who of the pop art scene in those days: Claes Oldenburg, Sol Lewitt, and Roy Lichtenstein can be found here, as can Hanne Darboven, Friederike Pezold, and Larry Poons.

Yet the real protagonist of the exhibition is the concept. Because here it is specifically about the serial order serving as a link for the three art movements. The American conceptual artist Mel Bochner did not understand serialism as a formalized gimmick but sees it as a proprietary method, even more so as an artistic strategy. In doing so, he makes a distinction between whether the works follow a modular or serial idea: modular works are based on the repetition of a standardized unit that does not change its basic form, and thus depicts a moment in time (e.g. Robert Indiana, Love Rising / Black and White Love (For Martin Luther King), 1968), while serial works obey a logical sequence, and thus present a trend over time (e.g. Sol LeWitt, Form Derived from a Cube, 1986). Both approaches can be found in all three movements and are compared with each other in the exhibition.

By the way: the Warhol trilogy will be rounded off on September 25, 2020. The two other exhibitions "ANDY WARHOL EXHIBITS a glittering alternative" and "DEFROSTING THE ICEBOX" will then also open.

Serial formations of pop art, minimal art, and conceptual art
July 1, 2020 – January 6, 2021
www.mumok.at