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Washington University in St. Louis
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

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Manfred Pernice

Foundation, Fundament '09

2009

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Manfred Pernice is well known for his large-scale sculptures and installations made out of common materials such as cardboard, particleboard, plywood, and concrete, as well as for his multimedia installations. Alluding to architectural models and incorporating everyday objects, his abstract sculptures are spatial interventions into modernist systems of classification and segmentation. Foundation, Fundament ’09 renders this abstract notion of sculptural practice more concrete. The slab of massive cement, a metal rod pierced diagonally through its middle, is the fragment of a building from a construction site in East Berlin; the pedestal on which it sits is patched together out of different tiles, recalling the mix of creativity and dilapidation induced by the East German economy of scarcity. Reframing architectural elements as readymades, this work not only alludes to East German quotidian culture and its communist past, but also counteracts the post-Wall disappearance and willful demolition of that culture. By placing on a pedestal within a museum that which has been discarded, Pernice enacts the double move of detachment and preservation typical of his overall sculptural approach—an approach that led frieze magazine to call him “a memorialist of the forgettable.” [Permanent collection label, 2015]

  • Artist Manfred Pernice (German, b. 1963)
  • Title Foundation, Fundament '09
  • Date 2009
  • Medium Wood, paint, ceramic, concrete, brick, steel, and paper
  • Dimensions overall | 69 3/4 x 20 x 20 in.
  • Credit line University purchase, Parsons Fund, 2009
  • Object number WU 2009.0006 a-b

Disorderly Materials / Contingent Objects
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/01/2023 - 12/31/2023 Teaching Gallery

Contemporary German Art: Selections from the Permanent Collection
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/03/2013 - 09/07/2013

Precarious Worlds: Contemporary Art from Germany
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/09/2011 - 01/09/2012

Manfred Pernice: 4–6 Apart.
Regen Projects II, 04/11/2009 - 05/16/2009

Precarious Worlds: Contemporary Art from Germany 2011

10/22/2009
Regen Projects, Los Angeles

This artwork record may be incomplete or need refinement. Our staff actively researches the collection and revises records when new information is available. If you have questions or comments about this record, please contact us.

Related Content

go to Manfred Pernice: 4–6 Apart. page
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Exhibitions

Manfred Pernice: 4–6 Apart.

April 11, 2009 - May 16, 2009
go to Precarious Worlds: Contemporary Art from Germany page
A view of a gallery with three walls in view. There is a large, multi-colored canvas on each wall.
Exhibitions

Precarious Worlds: Contemporary Art from Germany

September 09, 2011 - January 09, 2012
go to Contemporary German Art: Selections from the Permanent Collection page
no image
Exhibitions

Contemporary German Art: Selections from the Permanent Collection

May 03, 2013 - September 07, 2013
go to Disorderly Materials / Contingent Objects page
2009_0006a-b.tif
Exhibitions

Disorderly Materials / Contingent Objects

September 01, 2023 - December 31, 2023

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