Folding, Refraction, Touch: Modern and Contemporary Art in Dialogue with Wolfgang Tillmans

Drawing on the strength of the Harvard Art Museums’ modern and contemporary art collections, this exhibition presents a major recent acquisition by renowned German artist Wolfgang Tillmans (b. 1968). Entitled Folding, Refraction, Touch (2013), Tillmans’s installation foregrounds, formally and thematically, the material and immaterial qualities of the photographic medium. The 19-part installation, created specifically for the Busch-Reisinger Museum and shown publicly for the first time, is accompanied by 10 works from other artists, including Oskar Nerlinger, Norbert Kricke, and Isa Genzken, whose works resonate with Tillmans’s interest in surface, light, and the body.

Curated by Lynette Roth, Daimler Curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard Art Museums, and Olivia Crough, Ph.D. student in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University.

This exhibition was funded by the Charles L. Kuhn Endowment Fund. Modern and contemporary art programs at the Harvard Art Museums are made possible in part by generous support from the Emily Rauh Pulitzer and Joseph Pulitzer, Jr., Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art.

Related Programming
Information about events related to Folding, Refraction, Touch: Modern and Contemporary Art in Dialogue with Wolfgang Tillmans, including a film and video series, Materials Lab Workshops, gallery talks, and an Art Study Center Seminar, can be found in our calendar.