Tobias Rehberger
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Tobias Rehberger (born June 2, 1966) is a German sculptor, born in
Esslingen am Neckar Esslingen am Neckar (Swabian German, Swabian: ''Esslenga am Neckor''; until 16 October 1964 officially '' Eßlingen am Neckar'') is a town in the Stuttgart Region of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany, seat of the Esslingen (district), Distri ...
. He studied under Thomas Bayrle and
Martin Kippenberger Martin Kippenberger (25 February 1953 – 7 March 1997) was a German painter, draftsman, photographer, sculptor, installation and performance artist. He became known for his prolific output in a wide range of styles and media, superfiction, as w ...
at the Stadelschule in
Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
, where he now teaches.


Work

Rehberger works in the wider sphere of design and architecture, and his art is difficult to categorize. He has created an idyllic Japanese garden in the middle of Manhattan; Pop-inspired wallpaper consisting of photographs of his organs; a series of Modernist-looking treehouses in a park in northern Germany; and an enormous tanker based on a crude boat that the father of a friend built to escape from Vietnam. For his art-car series, a project that he began in 1999, Rehberger sent simple sketches, composed essentially from memory, of a
Porsche 911 The Porsche 911 model series (pronounced ''Nine Eleven'' or in ) is a family of German two-door, high performance Rear-engine design, rear-engine sports cars, introduced in September 1964 by Porsche, Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. Now in it ...
and a
McLaren F1 The McLaren F1 is a sports car that was the first Motor vehicle type approval, type approved road-going sportscar manufactured by British Formula One team McLaren. It was the last road-legal, series-produced sportscar to win the 24 Hours of Le ...
to a manufacturer in
Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
. There were no measurements or schematics included. The only parameters were that the cars had to be driveable and built to human scale. Rehberger also spent some time in
Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...
, where he provided native crafts workers with his crude drawings of well-known modernist chairs and asked them to recreate the designs. The results were filled with cultural misreadings:
Alvar Aalto Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (; 3 February 1898 – 11 May 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, see ...
's classic three-legged stool, for instance, was given an extra leg for stability. On the east side of
Madison Square Park Madison Square is a public square formed by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The square was named for Founding Father James Madison, the fourth president of the United St ...
in New York, Rehberger in 2001 created ''Tsutsumu'', an elegant Japanese garden made up of a large bonsai tree, a bench and a rock. Early in the morning, even on sweltering August days, the Public Art Fund sprayed the garden with four inches of man-made snow. Rehberger received the
Golden Lion The Golden Lion () is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguished prizes. In 1970, a ...
award for best artist at the 2009
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
. In December 2011, he unveiled his public sculpture ''Obstinate Lighthouse'', commissioned by the City of Miami Beach. In 2012, he was commissioned to design a project space in the
Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art The Leeum Museum of Art () is a museum in Hannam-dong, Yongsan District, Seoul, South Korea. It is run by the Samsung Foundation of Culture. It is considered one of South Korea's top three private art museums. The museum consists of two parts, on ...
in Seoul, Korea. Rehberger designed an exclusive collection of purses and bags for the German fashion label MCM in 2016. In 2013, Riley claimed that a wall-sized, black-and-white checkerboard work by Tobias Rehberger plagiarised her painting Movement in Squares and asked for it to be removed from display at the Berlin State Library's reading room. Tobias Rehberger is represented by neugerriemschneider in Berlin.


Exhibitions (selection)

*
Kunsthalle Basel Kunsthalle Basel is a contemporary art gallery in Basel, Switzerland. As Switzerland's oldest and still most active institution for contemporary art established in the year of 1872, Kunsthalle Basel forms a vital part of Basel's cultural centre ...
1998 *
Moderna Museet Moderna Museet is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened Moderna Museet Malmö in Malmö. History The museum opened in Stockh ...
, Stockholm, 1998 *
Sprengel Museum Sprengel Museum is a museum of modern art in Hanover, Lower Saxony, holding one of the most significant collections of modern art in Germany. It is located in a building situated adjacent to the Masch Lake () approximately south of the state m ...
, Hannover 1998 * ''Geläut – bis ich's hör ...'', Museum für Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe, 2002 * ''Bitte ... danke'', Galerie der Stadt Stuttgart, 2003/2004 * ''Private matters''
Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fi ...
, London, 2004 * ''Cancelled projects'', Museum Fridericianum, Cassel, 1995 * ''Home and away and outside installation'', Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, 2014 * ''New York Bar Oppenheimer'', Hotel Americano, New York, 2013 * ''Dazzle Ship London'', HMS ''President'', London, 2014


Recognition

* Förderpreis des Internationalen Kunstpreises of Baden-Württemberg Landes, 1999 * Ten-Preis 2001 * Karl-Ströher-Preis 2003 * Golden Lion for Best Artist that responded to the 2009 theme "Fare Mondi // Making Worlds"
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...


References


Further reading

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External links


Webpage at Galerie Bärbel Grässlin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rehberger, Tobias German sculptors Städelschule alumni German male sculptors 1966 births Living people German contemporary artists People from Esslingen am Neckar