The year 1988…the exhibition…the first major Günther Förg exhibition organized by the Haags Gemeentemuseum and curated by Rudi Fuchs. On show large lead paintings with constructivist patterns on them and emphasized by Günther Förg his photography of blown up architecture and portraits. Impressive exhibition and one of the first Fuchs curated for the Gemeentemuseum. In Amsterdam a little earlier in time, Wim van Krimpen, who became director himself of the Gemeentemuseum, organized a Günther Förg show and published with this show a beautiful set of lithographs in a very small edition of 25 ( 1987). Large sized sheets of quality paper printed with 4 typical Günther Förg works. I bought the set and had it on the wall for over 10 years, removed it from the wall and forgot about it until….Wim van Krimpen became the director of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and i told him we had met before on the occasion of me buying this set in his gallery. He said i was lucky to have the complete set. I asked him why. He told me he stocked what was left after the show in his basement to “save them for a rainy day”, but unfortunately he had a leakage in his basement and all were damaged and destroyed. I asked him how many series there were left within the edition and he told me that more than half was destroyed. This would mean that only 10 copies of each print have survived.
A great loss, but still there are some to be found if you keep searching for them 😉
Günther Förg publications are of course available at www.ftn-books.com
wilfried
and….
PS. I searched years and years for a second set and finally found one ….it is now for sale.
