Black is Gold

“Coal means wealth” – The valuable raw material coal is the source not just of the economic and social, but also the cultural prosperity of a whole region. In the Ruhr area, including Duisburg, coal mining has contributed substantially to the current wealth of the museums’ art collections.

So the black gold from the mines is at the centre of this exhibition of large-scale installations and sculptures:  The deep black of coal, its shimmering surface and tactile qualities were used as aesthetic resources by artists such as Marcel Broodthaers, David Hammons, Reiner Ruthenbeck, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, Bernar Venet or the ZERO group. William Kentridge held a critical and poetic mirror up to the process of mining it. Today, artists of a younger generation, including Katinka Bock, Peter Buggenhout, Lara Favaretto, Alicja Kwade or Lucy Skaer, are responding to this aesthetic, while Jürgen Stollhans, Kalina Lindena and Frauke Dannert are creating works specifically for this exhibition.