Anne Imhof (born 1978 in Giessen, Germany) is a German visual artist, choreographer, and performance artist who lives and works between Frankfurt and Paris.[1][2] She is best known for her endurance art (also known as durational performance), although she cites painting and drawing as central to her practice.[3][4]
In 2017, she received the Golden Lion for her work Faust at the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale and was ranked No.1 on Monopol's Top 100 list.[5]
Early life and education
Imhof was born in Giessen and grew up in Fulda.[6] She was born to her teacher father, Michael Imhof (born 1947), and dentist mother, Annette Imhof-Kramer.[citation needed] Her cousin is art book publisher Michael Imhof (born 1964).[citation needed]
Imhof attended the Catholic Marienschule in Fulda and the Marianum in Fulda, a private Catholic secondary school in the Marianist tradition, graduating in 1997.[citation needed] She studied a year abroad at Prior Park College in Bath, England.[2] There, she received private drawing lessons from a teacher.[7][2] She was suspended from the school and sent home to Germany.[2] She describes the environment as having been homophobic, saying she was accused of having the 'evil eye' and bewitching other girls.
From 2000 to 2003, Imhof studied Visual Communication at the Offenbach University of Art and Design (HfG), under Heiner Blum.[2] There she met Nadine Fraczkowski, who she was also in the band "Daughters from a Good Family" with, and has since worked with as a photographer. In 2003, Imhof presented her first video work, Private Butterflies, made in collaboration with Fraczkowski, at the Festival of Young Talents.[8]
Imhof lived in Paris on a scholarship from the Hessian Cultural Foundation.[2]
Imhof played piano as a child, and later played in several bands.[2] She moved to Frankfurt, living in a commune and making music in her twenties. She worked as a bouncer for a club called Robert Johnson.[7]
Work
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Imhof works across painting, video, music and performance. She says that all these media are created simultaneously and all influence each another.[4] Her work usually starts in her drawing practice.
Collaboration is a big part of her work.[4] She has a long-time collaboration with artist Eliza Douglas.
Imhof often composes music for her performances, either alone or in collaboration with other artists, which has included Billy Bultheel, Eliza Douglas and Franziska Aigner.[2]
Animals also often feature in Imhof's performances. The first was in Aqua Leo (2013).[2]
Imhof was awarded the Preis there Nationalgalerie for her work Forever Rage (2015).[10]
Angst I, 2016, Angst II
Imhof's work Angst was premiered at Kunsthalle Basel in 2016.[10] It featured performers interacting in choreographed movements within an installation of objects, paintings, branded consumer products and live falcons. Imhof included falcons as she was interested in the relationship between falcon and falconer.[2]
Faust, Venice Biennale, 2017
In 2017, commissioned by Susanne Pfeffer,[2] Imhof represented Germany at the Venice Biennale, transforming the pavilion with her performance piece, 'Faust'[11] The performers arranged themselves throughout the pavilion, above and below the installed glass floors. Sometimes crawling under the floors, other times engaging in activities which range from looking sulky and checking their mobile phones, to masturbation and lighting small fires. Imhof was rewarded the prestigious Golden Lion award for "Best National Participation", in a much written about effort. This award is given to only one of the 85 exhibitions mounted in pavilions in the Giardini della Biennale and across Venice[12][13]
The work is widely considered to be Imhof's Meisterwerk.[14] People queued for two hours to enter the pavilion.
Frieze named the work No.12 of "The 25 Best Works of the 21st Century".[14]
DOOM, 2025
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Natures Mortes
Originally scheduled for March 2020, Imhof's exhibition Natures Mortes was held at Palais Tokyo in 2021.[15] The exhibition included Untitled (Wave) (2021), a video work featuring Eliza Douglas, dressed only in trousers, whipping the waves of the sea.
↑Elke Buhr, Sebastian Frenzel, Jens Hinrichsen, Silke Hohmann, David Jenal, Saskia Trebing, Daniel Völzke: These are the 100 most important artists and curators, gallerists and dealers, collectors and critics of 2017. In: . No. 12. Res Publica Verlags GmbH, November 16, 2017, p. 44–69 .
↑Baer-Bogenschütz, Dorothee (6 January 2017). "Angst vor der Unendlichkeit". giessener-allgemeine.de (in German). Retrieved 7 July 2019.
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