Before the age of modernism, love was a central theme in the arts. Compared to other such central themes in life as politics, work, power, love, however, seems to have become a rarity in contemporary art. This artistic reticence regarding an aspect of life that is of major importance for every human being is perhaps founded on an essential difference between love and art: While love seeks unification, art strives for difference. Love softens differences, art emphasizes them. Where love generates benevolence, art seeks friction. Love is identificational, art questions identity. Upon closer examination, however, it is thus not surprising that contemporary artists seem to keep their distance to the theme of love.
The exhibition in the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum approaches this now uncommon subject matter in contemporary art using the example of works by 26 artists from the 1970s to the present.

Participating artists: Hamra Abbas, Marina Abramović / Ulay, Johanna Adebäck / Merve Ertufan, Merlin Bauer, Bigert & Bergström, Louise Bourgeois, Martin Brand, Los Carpinteros, Anja Ciupka, Daniela Comani, Eli Cortiñas, Tracey Emin, Asta Gröting, Sharon Hayes, Stef Heidhues, Robert Indiana, Christian Jankowski, Maria Lassnig, Alexej Meschtschanow, Alice Musiol, Nadine Preiß / Damian Zimmermann, Beate Rose, Matthias Ströckel, Gilian Wearing, Mehrdad Zaeri

Curators: Barbara J. Scheuermann mit Cathrin Langanke