Rattenkonig katharina fritsch biography
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Katharina Fritsch
German sculptor
Katharina Fritsch (born 14 February 1956) is a German sculptor.[1] She lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany.[1]
Early life and education
[edit]Fritsch was born on 14 February 1956 in Essen, West Germany.[1][2] Fritsch first studied history and art history at the University of Münster and, in 1977, transferred to Kunstakademie Düsseldorf where she was a student of Fritz Schwegler until 1984.[3]
Work
[edit]Fritsch is known for her sculptures and installations that reinvigorate familiar objects with a jarring and uncanny sensibility. Her works' iconography is drawn from many different sources, including Christianity, art history and folklore. She attracted international attention for the first time in the mid-1980s with life-size works such as a true-to-scale elephant along with replicas of everyday objects like a large display stand filled with statues of Madonna. Fritsch's art is oft
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Hail to the Rat-King of Basel’s Schaulager
No pilgrimage to the Schaulager, Basel’s über art store, is complete without paying respect to Rattenkönig (Rat-King), Katharina Fritsch’s 1993 16-strong ring of gigantic rodents, who hold court in their own huge room. The artist recently told Isabel Zürcher the story behind the work of art in the magazine accompanying the Schaulager’s magnificent, collection-based show Future Present (until 31 January 2016). Fritsch drew inspiration from Grimms’ fairytales and also temples in India where rats are held sacred, she said. But the sculpture was mainly inspired by the German artist’s first visit to New York in the 1980s. It was a city of fear— “Aids had become a tragic reality, and the entire mood of the art world was subdued,” she recalls. “Everybody wore black leather,” and the blackened gargoyles on the city’s Gothic skycrapers also made a big impression. “I associated the city with the concept of the Moloch, the demon that devours people.
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Rat King (Rattenkönig)
About this artwork
Status
- Currently Off View
Department
- Contemporary Art
Artist
- Katharina Fritsch
Title
- Rat King (Rattenkönig)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
- Made 1998
Medium
- Polyester and paint
Edition
- 1 of 8, plus 1 artist's proof
Dimensions
- 14.9 × 60 × 60 cm (5 7/8 × 23 5/8 × 23 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
- Gift of Donna and Howard Stone
Reference Number
- 2015.648
Copyright
- © 2018 Artists Rights kultur (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Extended kunskap about this artwork
Object upplysning is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensin