K.F. Daumen / H. Brenken
November 22 - January 07, 1972
“Until 7 January, a veritable professor of the Munich Art Academy is now exhibiting at the Kunstverein. Together with Hanne Brenken (graphics and paintings of the last ten years) Karl Fred Dahmen shows ‘Galgenbilder und Montagekästen 1968 bis 1972’. [...]
Dahmen's contribution to contemporary art has been a ‘Chiemgau legend’ since 1968, when he became a professor at the Munich Academy: in the Chiemgau, the Rhinelander (from Stolberg near Aachen) furnished an old farmhouse. He likes to take the utensils for his ‘object shrines’ from the countryside: Relics of use from the natural economy, whose mechanisation trend cannot be overlooked.
Between hard mattresses, Dahmen fixes ropes and old belts, saw blades, exhaust parts, iron rings, felt and nails, horsehair from tails in whole bundles, flexible pipes, brushes, cleaning wool and cartridge cases, oily and dirty, yet neatly framed in boxes and often under glass: the aesthetic and meaningfully made 'Objet trouvé' of the Surrealists[...].
Hanne Brenken's optimistic signal panels create the counter-image of an ideal world. Order, cleanliness and symmetry prevail here. What should be round is round, the colour circle closes harmoniously, the arrangement of the cockades is strictly axial, recently there are symbolic associations at the gate into Nirvana and rising sun discs.”
(Oberbayerisches Volksblatt,1972)
Fig:
[1] Excert from Aachener Nachrichten: Karl Fred Dahmen in his studio.