In the words of co-curator Carla Schulz-Hoffmann, “Inbetween brings together two exceptional artists in an exciting dialog with one another, two artists who could hardly be any more different. By focusing on the juxtaposition of several exemplary works in the exhibition, surprising parallels reveal themselves, not in terms of their artistic approach, but in how they work with similar issues. Both artists, the German Georg Baselitz and the American Paul McCarthy, react consciously and aggressively to their respective biographic, historical, and cultural surroundings, drawing from them the key coordinates for their artistic work. Their work revolves around themes such as identity, their location in the artistic and general social context, and basic existential questions. For both, the rejection of all constraints, such as fixed norms of the “zeitgeist” or one-sided artistic dogmas. Whereas Baselitz, however, unrelentingly processes the traumas of his specific history, McCarthy reacts with biting satirical exaggeration. Both create new forms of artistic expression beyond narrow, distorting limits: Baselitz by drawing on the medium of painting itself, McCarthy by drawing on the link between traditional and innovative, transdisciplinary artistic techniques, such as video or performance.”
– Carla Schulz-Hoffmann, 2015
