KATHARINA FRITSCH
Figure in the Garden: Katharina Fritsch at the Museum of Modern Art
The centerpiece of the exhibition “Figure in the Garden” was Katharina Fritsch’s Figurengruppe (Group of Figures, 2006–08). On view in the Museum of Modern Art’s Sculpture Garden from 2011 to 2013, “Figure in the Garden” also included works by Auguste Rodin, Pablo Picasso, and Alberto Giacometti, among others. But Fritsch’s polychromic ensemble, the show’s only work from the twenty-first century, made a bold statement about the present and future of figurative sculpture.
The catalogue includes generous illustrations, including many photographs taken by Fritsch herself. Robert Fleck’s essay examines the works and traces the history of the museum’s Sculpture Garden, which, on its opening in 1939, was the world’s first outdoor space for exhibiting modern sculpture. And a conversation between Fleck, Fritsch, artist Tom Otterness, and MoMA curator Ann Temkin, who curated the exhibition, explores issues around sculptural display while revealing how the exhibition came together.