Julia Stoschek Collection : Number Six: Flaming Creatures

In seeking out modernism, artists and intellectuals around the turn of the twentieth century developed new styles and forms that broke with tradition and were said to have left behind a conservative Europe and its historically oriented art. The concept of “camp” sums up a particularly exciting, yet little-noticed characteristic of modernism, defined by Susan Sontag as a “love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration.” During the fifties and sixties it was developed to culmination by artists who were interested in everyday culture, kitsch, and retro design, as well as by those involved in punk culture and Pop Art. Jack Smith’s film Flaming Creatures (1963) set the standard for an entire generation of artists centered on Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, and Mike Kelley. This publication presents camp’s aesthetics, its desire for the fictional and play with masks, its clown-like exaggeration, and its exceedingly fine perception. Artists featured: John Bock, Lizzie Fitch, Birgit Hein, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, Bruce Nauman, Tony Oursler, Paper Rad, Peaches, Aura Rosenberg, Ed Ruscha, Jack Smith, Gwenn Thomas, Ryan Trecartin Exhibition schedule: Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf, September 8, 2012–June 2013