Isa Genzken
Living · German · born 1948 · works in Berlin
Isa Genzken at the opening of her exhibition "Sesam, oeffne dich!" at Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 14 August 2009.
Photograph by Hpschaefer (www.reserv-a-rt.de), CC BY-SA 3.0| Works as | Sculptor, Installation artist, Photographer, Filmmaker |
|---|---|
| Works in | Berlin, Germany |
| Represented by | Galerie Buchholz, Berlin, Cologne and New York; Hauser & Wirth, London and Zurich; David Zwirner, New York |
| Nationality | German |
| Movement | Post-minimal and assemblage sculpture |
| Sources | 32 cited |
| Last verified |
About this page Last verified · 32 sources cited
On this page 15 sections
ContentsClose
Most people meet Isa Genzken through the cluttered, glittering assemblages of the 2000s. The record that is harder to find is a thirty-year series of works built for streets, squares and forecourts: a 30-metre steel frame on the forecourt of the Bielefeld Stadthalle (1992), a three-metre concrete cube of crossed beams on a Munich street (1994). Her own gallery lists 42 outdoor projects from 1984 to 2016, and at least five of them (Bielefeld, Munich, Leipzig, Muenster, Brussels) carry a "since" year on the gallery's list.
Isa Genzken was born in 1948 in Bad Oldesloe and works in Berlin. She studied in Hamburg, Berlin and Cologne and finished at the Kunstakademie Duesseldorf in 1977 (Nasher Sculpture Center, 2018; Jahn und Jahn CV; MoMA gives 1972 for her enrolment at Duesseldorf). According to the Museum of Modern Art, she began exhibiting in 1976, when she was the youngest woman to have a solo presentation at the Konrad Fischer gallery in Duesseldorf, and her early international reputation rested on large wooden floor sculptures, the Ellipsoids and Hyperbolos, made from computer calculations.
Her practice then moved through plaster and concrete sculptures that resemble architectural maquettes (1986 to 1991), epoxy-resin windows and collage in the 1990s, and from the late 1990s increasingly complex assemblages of found and bought objects, that, in the museum's phrase, engage with "the geopolitical issues of our time". She represented Germany at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007 with the installation Oil, took part in documenta three times (1982, 1992, 2002) and in Skulptur Projekte Muenster three times (1987, 1997, 2007), and received the 2019 Nasher Prize for sculpture.
The page is organised the way a buyer or registrar would ask the questions: which of her works stand permanently in public, how work leaves the studio and the gallery, what paper exists, who publishes the catalogue raisonne, and what the public auction record does and does not show.
The reading
Museum track Museum retrospectives and major prizes (holdings in ten or more museums, or a retrospective, or a major prize; read off the signals below on every update, never set by hand)
The record shows an artist with museum retrospectives in Europe and North America, a national pavilion and a major sculpture prize, and with permanent public works standing on streets and forecourts in German cities. The paper trail for a work is the gallery's documentation and, since 2026, a catalogue raisonne for 1961 to 1996. The public auction record cannot be read in full from the sources used, because the houses' result pages are mostly behind logins. What would change this reading is a published authentication procedure, the later volumes of the catalogue raisonne, or access to the houses' hammer and premium data.
The signals
The evidence the reading is written from: 30 dated facts, each with its source, by kind (institutional 9, biennales and surveys 5, recognition 3, representation 4, market 2, literature 4, practice 3). A signal is something that happened and can be checked: a museum bought a work, a prize was given, a show opened, a lot sold. Nothing here is a prediction.
Show the 30 signals
| Signal | Date | What is recorded | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Institutional | 2009 | Whitechapel Gallery, London, "Open, Sesame!", 5 April to 21 June 2009, organised in collaboration with Museum Ludwig, Cologne, which showed it from 15 August to 15 November 2009. | 15 |
| Institutional | 2013 | Museum of Modern Art, New York: first major US museum retrospective, 23 November 2013 to 10 March 2014, more than 150 objects, co-organised with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Dallas Museum of Art. | 7 |
| Institutional | 2015 | Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, "Mach Dich huebsch!", 29 November 2015 to 6 March 2016, over 200 works, the museum's description of her first major retrospective in the Netherlands; Gropius Bau, Berlin, 9 April to 26 June 2016. | 16 |
| Institutional | 2023 | Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, "Isa Genzken. 75/75", 13 July to 27 November 2023, 75 sculptures. | 10 |
| Institutional | 2025 | Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, Frankfurt, "Isa Genzken Meets Liebieghaus", 6 March to 26 October 2025, 18 works placed among the collection. | 22 |
| Institutional | 2020 | Kunstmuseum Basel, "Works from 1973 to 1983", 5 September 2020 to 24 January 2021; adapted for K21, Duesseldorf, 8 May to 5 September 2021. | 20 |
| Institutional | 1992 | Der Spiegel, steel, Stadthalle forecourt, Bielefeld, in the city's public-art listing (Stadt Bielefeld, Kulturamt). | 2 |
| Institutional | 1994 | X, reinforced concrete, Arnulfstrasse, Munich, listed as public art (MuenchenWiki). | 4 |
| Institutional | 18 Oct 2024 | Hamburger Kunsthalle, "Isa Mona Lisa", collection presentation of works by more than thirty artists including Genzken, 18 October 2024 to 11 October 2026; the title comes from a Wolfgang Tillmans photograph. | 11 |
| Biennales and surveys | 2007 | Venice, German Pavilion, 52nd Biennale, "Oil", 10 June to 21 November 2007. | 12 |
| Biennales and surveys | 1982 | documenta 7, Kassel; then documenta IX (1992) and documenta 11 (2002), per the Museum of Modern Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center. | 7 |
| Biennales and surveys | 1987 | Skulptur Projekte Muenster 1987, 1997 and 2007; the Museum of Modern Art lists all three. | 7 |
| Biennales and surveys | 2001 | Istanbul Biennial 2001 and the 2004 Carnegie International, per the Museum of Modern Art. | 7 |
| Biennales and surveys | 2015 | Venice Biennale 2015, "All the World's Futures", the outdoor-project models; the Nasher release lists Venice in 1982, 1993, 2003, 2007 and 2015. | 8 |
| Recognition | 25 Sep 2018 | Nasher Prize for sculpture 2019, announced 25 September 2018; the Nasher Sculpture Center set the presentation for 6 April 2019 in Dallas with an award designed by Renzo Piano. | 8 |
| Recognition | 2017 | Goslarer Kaiserring (Goslar Kaiserring), listed in the Jahn und Jahn CV for 2017. | 9 |
| Recognition | 2002 | Wolfgang Hahn Prize of the Gesellschaft fuer Moderne Kunst at Museum Ludwig, Cologne, with a solo show that year. | 8 |
| Representation | 1988 | Galerie Buchholz, Cologne, Berlin and New York; the gallery lists exhibitions from November 1987, its first own show with her in April 1988, and announced a 13th solo show in 2018. | 6 |
| Representation | 2005 | David Zwirner (New York) shows listed in the Jahn und Jahn CV: 2005, 2007, 2015, 2018 and 2021 (Hong Kong), plus Paris in 2020. | 9 |
| Representation | 2004 | Hauser & Wirth shows listed in the Jahn und Jahn CV: London 2004, 2008, 2015, 2020 and 2024; Zurich 2012. | 9 |
| Representation | 2019 | Jahn und Jahn, Munich, shows "Collagen" (2019) and "Basic Research" (2023) and hosts the CV used here. | 9 |
| Market | 9 Jun 2023 | Ketterer Kunst, Munich, sale 541, lot 183, Weltempfaenger "Boston" (1991): EUR 88,900 including surcharge; hammer not stated; estimate EUR 30,000. | 24 |
| Market | 10 Feb 2016 | Sotheby's London, sale L16020, lot 3, Doppelraum (1990): estimate GBP 150,000 to 200,000; the lot page shows no result (date from the sale number). | 25 |
| Literature | 2013 | Isa Genzken: Retrospective, Museum of Modern Art, 334 pages, essays by Sabine Breitwieser, Laura Hoptman, Michael Darling, Jeffrey Grove and Lisa Lee. | 7 |
| Literature | 2017 | Lisa Lee, Isa Genzken: Sculpture as World Receiver, University of Chicago Press, 2017. | 28 |
| Literature | 2020 | Aussenprojekte / Projects for Outside, 192 pages, covering 42 outdoor projects from 1984 to 2016, texts by Manfred Hermes and Susanne Kleine. | 6 |
| Literature | 2026 | Catalogue Raisonne 1961-1996, Galerie Buchholz, 702 pages, edition of 800. | 6 |
| Practice | 1987 | Weltempfaenger edition for the Kunstverein fuer die Rheinlande und Westfalen: 18 signed and dated unique pieces. | 28 |
| Practice | 2010 | Mona Isa inkjet print for Texte zur Kunst no. 78: edition of 100 plus 20 artist's proofs, signed and numbered on the back. | 28 |
| Practice | 2018 | Galerie Buchholz lists 42 outdoor projects, 1984 to 2016, in its 2020 book Aussenprojekte / Projects for Outside; the 2018 exhibition announced the catalogue as the first volume of a comprehensive catalogue raisonne. | 6 |
Exhibitions
Past exhibitions 14
- ClosedIsa Genzken Meets Liebieghaus6 Mar to 26 Oct 2025ConfirmedLiebieghaus Skulpturensammlung · Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- ClosedWorks from 1973 to 19838 May to 5 Sep 2021ConfirmedK21, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen · Duesseldorf, Germany
- ClosedWorks from 1973 to 19835 Sep 2020 to 24 Jan 2021ConfirmedKunstmuseum Basel · Basel, Switzerland
- ClosedMach Dich huebsch!29 Nov 2015 to 6 Mar 2016ConfirmedStedelijk Museum Amsterdam · Amsterdam, Netherlands
- ClosedIsa Genzken: Retrospective12 Apr to 3 Aug 2014ConfirmedMuseum of Contemporary Art Chicago · Chicago, United States
- ClosedIsa Genzken: Retrospective23 Nov 2013 to 10 Mar 2014ConfirmedMuseum of Modern Art ·
New York, United States
The work
Chronology
- 1948
Born in Bad Oldesloe, Germany.8
- 1969-1977
Studies in Hamburg, Berlin and Cologne, finishing at the Kunstakademie Duesseldorf in 1977 (Jahn und Jahn CV gives 1969-1971 Hamburg and 1973-1977 Duesseldorf).89
- 1976
First solo presentation at Galerie Konrad Fischer, Duesseldorf; the Museum of Modern Art calls her the youngest woman to have had one there.79
- 1982
- 1987
Skulptur Projekte Muenster 87 (ABC, concrete and steel); the 1987 Weltempfaenger edition is issued.128
- 1988-1989
Survey exhibitions at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Kunstmuseum Winterthur and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (per German Wikipedia).28
- 1992
Der Spiegel installed in Bielefeld; "Jeder braucht mindestens ein Fenster" opens at the Renaissance Society, Chicago, and tours to Frankfurt, Brussels and Munich in 1992-93.1228
- 1993
First Rose installed in the garden of the Villa Schriever, Baden-Baden (Galerie Buchholz lists it "since 1993").129
- 1994
- 1997
Rose in front of the new convention centre in Leipzig; Skulptur Projekte Muenster 97 (Vollmond, listed since 1998).127
- 2002
Wolfgang Hahn Prize, Museum Ludwig, Cologne; documenta 11.828
- 2007
Represents Germany at the 52nd Venice Biennale with Oil (10 June to 21 November).1213
- 2009
Open, Sesame! at the Whitechapel Gallery (5 April to 21 June) and Sesam, oeffne dich! at Museum Ludwig (15 August to 15 November).1415
- 2013-2014
Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (23 November 2013 to 10 March 2014), then Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (12 April to 3 August 2014) and the Dallas Museum of Art.723
- 2015-2016
Mach Dich huebsch! at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (29 November 2015 to 6 March 2016) and the Gropius Bau, Berlin (9 April to 26 June 2016); Models for Outdoor Projects at the Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (15 January to 17 April 2016).161718
- 2017
Awarded the Goslar Kaiserring.9
- 2018
Named winner of the 2019 Nasher Prize on 25 September; Rose III in Zuccotti Park, New York (since 2018).18
- 2023
Isa Genzken. 75/75 at the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (13 July to 27 November), 75 sculptures.10
- 2025
Isa Genzken Meets Liebieghaus, Frankfurt (6 March to 26 October).223233
- 2026
Galerie Buchholz publishes the Catalogue Raisonne 1961-1996.6
The market
Public auction data is sparse in the sources read. Ketterer Kunst sold the cast-concrete Weltempfaenger "Boston" (1991) on 9 June 2023 for EUR 88,900 including surcharge, against an estimate of EUR 30,000; the page gives no separate hammer price. Sotheby's catalogued Doppelraum (1990) at GBP 150,000 to 200,000 on 10 February 2016, with the result hidden behind a login. Nothing else is claimed here.
| Date | Sale | Work | Result | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 June 2023 | Ketterer Kunst, Munich (sale 541, lot 183) | Weltempfaenger "Boston", 1991, cast concrete with retractable antenna | Hammer not stated With premium total with surcharge 88,900 EUR | The house prints the price as "incl. surcharge" and gives an estimate of EUR 30,000; no separate hammer figure on the lot page. |
Hammer is the price at which the bidding stopped; with premium adds the fee the house charges the buyer on top. Hammer price and buyer's premium in the glossary.
Recorded without a public price
- 10 February 2016 · Doppelraum, 1990, concrete and steel · Sotheby's London (sale L16020, lot 3) · not shown Estimate GBP 150,000 to 200,000; the lot page shows no result.
Where to see the work
| Institution | City | Holdings | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stadthalle Bielefeld, forecourt | Bielefeld | Der Spiegel (1992) | Permanent, on public ground; in the city's public-art listing. |
| Arnulfstrasse (triple sports facility) | Munich | X (1994) | Public art on the street, in MuenchenWiki and the gallery's outdoor list. |
| Garden of the Villa Schriever, Lichtentaler Allee | Baden-Baden | Rose (1993) | Villa garden; public access not established. |
| Leipziger Messe, Glass Hall west entrance | Leipzig | Rose (1997) | Described by the Messe as part of its art collection. |
| Lawn by the Aa lake, Muenster | Muenster | Vollmond (1997, "since 1998") | Listed by Galerie Buchholz; steel, frosted glass and lighting, 1400 cm. |
The essay
Chapter 1The standard account is assemblage; the outdoor record is older and quieter
Texts on Genzken usually start from the late assemblages.
Texts on Genzken usually start from the late assemblages. Her gallery, Galerie Buchholz, lists a different line of work in its 2018 exhibition "Aussenprojekte": 42 outdoor projects between 1984 and 2016, among them competition entries, models and works that were built (Galerie Buchholz, 2018 and 2020 publication note). Most entries on that page are described as projects, models or competition entries, and the page does not say which were realised; for the works that carry a "since" date, the gallery states Bielefeld (since 1992), Brussels, rue du Canal (since 1990), Munich (since 1994), Baden-Baden (since 1993), Leipzig (since 1997), Muenster (since 1998), Deurle (since 1998) and New York, Zuccotti Park (since 2018).
The Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn showed thirty-five models in 2016, both realised and unrealised works, and Kunsthalle Bern repeated the idea in 2019 (ArtMap listings). The models were first shown in Venice in 2015, according to the Galerie Buchholz page.
Chapter 2A steel frame in Bielefeld and a concrete cube in Munich, both on public ground
Der Spiegel (1992) stands on the forecourt of the Stadthalle in Bielefeld.
Der Spiegel (1992) stands on the forecourt of the Stadthalle in Bielefeld. The city's Kulturamt entry gives steel, height 30.00 m, width 27.05 m, depth 20.00 m, and describes a silver steel frame carried by two struts, "like a mirror leaning against a wall", with a frame that directs the eye to details of the Stadthalle and its surroundings (Stadt Bielefeld, Kulturamt, in the vhs Bielefeld programme). The Galerie Buchholz table lists the material as galvanised steel and the work as the result of a competition for the embellishment of the site. The gallery's table gives different dimensions (3000 x 2000 x 3900 cm); the city figures are used here. nrw-skulptur.net, which documents the work as "Der Spiegel", notes that despite the title the frame holds no mirror.
X (1994) stands on the Arnulfstrasse in Munich. MuenchenWiki lists it as a three-metre reinforced-concrete construction set up in 1994, and the sculpture guide welt-der-form.net gives 300 x 240 x 240 cm at the triple sports facility on that street; the Galerie Buchholz table agrees on concrete and the same dimensions, with "since 1994".
Chapter 3One rose, several sizes, three sites
The Rose is the image that crosses her whole outdoor career.
The Rose is the image that crosses her whole outdoor career. The Galerie Buchholz table lists a Rose of 1993 in the park of the Villa Schriever in Baden-Baden, a Rose of 1997 in front of the new convention centre in Leipzig, and Rose III (2016) in Zuccotti Park, New York, since 2018, each in steel, aluminium and enamel with a height of 800 cm. The Leipziger Messe itself describes the Leipzig Rose as a monumental oversized metal rose at the west entrance of the Glass Hall, part of the art collection assembled for the Exhibition Centre opened in 1996 (Leipziger Messe).
The Baden-Baden Rose stands in the garden of the Villa Schriever, a privately owned villa, according to the Stadtwiki Baden-Baden; the sources read do not say whether it can be visited, and no plate of it is used here.
Chapter 4Oil: the pavilion as a stage
For Venice in 2007 Genzken built an exhibition for the German Pavilion that, in the commission's own text, takes up the architecture of the building and presents it in a mise-en-scene that also...
For Venice in 2007 Genzken built an exhibition for the German Pavilion that, in the commission's own text, takes up the architecture of the building and presents it in a mise-en-scene that also comments on it (German Pavilion 2007 site). The same text says the title Oil refers both to the raw material over which people struggle across the globe and to a set of abstract, visual and material metaphors, and describes her materials as shifting from wood, plaster, epoxy resin and above all concrete to plastic, synthetics, mirrors and everyday consumer goods. The commissioner was the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany with the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa) as co-organiser, and Nicolaus Schafhausen was the curator (e-flux, 31 March 2007).
A 16-part work from that installation, Oil XI (2007), closed the 2013 Museum of Modern Art retrospective in the garden lobby, where, according to the museum, three astronauts float overhead above rolling suitcases (MoMA press release, 13 November 2013).
Chapter 5Materials in an order a buyer can date
The Museum of Modern Art describes the career in chapters.
The Museum of Modern Art describes the career in chapters. In the mid-1970s, as a student at the Duesseldorf academy, she made the stereometric wooden floor sculptures that gave her early acclaim. From the 1980s she made sculptures in plaster and concrete, from maquette size to monumental, and between 1986 and 1991 series of free-standing concrete sculptures on high steel pedestals that the museum says resemble architectural maquettes. In the late 1980s she added painting, and by the mid-1990s epoxy-resin windows, collage and eventually assemblage; from the late 1990s the assemblage installations grew more complex (MoMA press release, 2013).
The practical consequence for anyone examining a work is that the medium dates it roughly: wood and computer printouts belong to the 1970s, plaster and concrete to the 1980s and early 1990s, epoxy resin to the mid-1990s, mixed found material, mirror foil and plastic to the 2000s. Conservation questions follow the material: cast concrete with a retractable antenna in the Weltempfaenger series, enamel and spray paint on plastic in the aeroplane windows, plaster, wire and tin foil in the later small pieces, as the auction houses describe them (Ketterer Kunst; Sotheby's lot pages).
Chapter 6How a work leaves the studio: unique pieces, editions and the galleries
Where Genzken has issued multiples, the two editions found in the sources read are small and the numbers are stated.
Where Genzken has issued multiples, the two editions found in the sources read are small and the numbers are stated. The Weltempfaenger (World Receiver) of 1987, a small concrete radio with an antenna of about 15 x 23.5 x 4.7 cm, was issued by the Kunstverein fuer die Rheinlande und Westfalen in Duesseldorf as 18 signed and dated unique pieces, according to German Wikipedia; the Mona Isa inkjet print of 2010, made for issue 78 of Texte zur Kunst, was, again according to German Wikipedia, an edition of 100 plus 20 artist's proofs, signed and numbered on the back. The publishers' own pages were not read.
Her galleries leave a paper trail in their own exhibition lists. Galerie Buchholz (Cologne, Berlin, New York) lists exhibitions from November 1987 and announced its 13th solo show with her in 2018 (Galerie Buchholz). The Jahn und Jahn CV lists solo shows with David Zwirner (New York, Paris, Hong Kong), Hauser & Wirth (London, Zurich), Jahn und Jahn (Munich), Peder Lund (Oslo) and Koenig Galerie (Berlin). The Sotheby's lot page for Doppelraum (1990) gives its provenance as Galleria Mario Pieroni, Rome, acquired from there by the then owner in the 1990s, and its exhibition history as the 1992-93 "Everybody Needs at Least One Window" tour.
Chapter 7Who confirms a work today: the 2026 catalogue raisonne
Galerie Buchholz published a "Catalogue Raisonne 1961-1996" in 2026: 702 pages, hardcover, fully illustrated, edition of 800, EUR 240, edited by Daniel Buchholz with Michael Sanchez, Katharina Forero...
Galerie Buchholz published a "Catalogue Raisonne 1961-1996" in 2026: 702 pages, hardcover, fully illustrated, edition of 800, EUR 240, edited by Daniel Buchholz with Michael Sanchez, Katharina Forero de Mund and Christopher Mueller, with an introductory essay by Manfred Hermes, a biographical timeline, exhibition history and bibliography; it documents work in all media in chronological order (Galerie Buchholz). The gallery announced a book presentation in Cologne for October 2026. When the gallery announced the Aussenprojekte show in 2018 it described the accompanying catalogue as the first volume of a comprehensive catalogue raisonne (Galerie Buchholz, 2018).
The page does not describe a public certificate scheme or a named studio authentication board, and none was found in the sources read; the catalogue and the gallery's documentation are the practical reference. Exhibition catalogues are the older paper layer: the 1988 Bonn, Winterthur and Rotterdam survey, the 1992-93 "Jeder braucht mindestens ein Fenster" tour, the Phaidon monograph of 2006, the 2013 Museum of Modern Art catalogue and Lisa Lee's "Isa Genzken: Sculpture as World Receiver" (University of Chicago Press, 2017) (German Wikipedia literature list; MoMA).
Chapter 8Institutions: Bonn in 1988 to Frankfurt in 2025
The survey shows run in a clear sequence: Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Kunstmuseum Winterthur and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in 1988-89 (per German Wikipedia); the Renaissance Society in...
The survey shows run in a clear sequence: Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, Kunstmuseum Winterthur and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in 1988-89 (per German Wikipedia); the Renaissance Society in Chicago, Portikus, Brussels and the Lenbachhaus in 1992-93; Museum Abteiberg in 2002-03 (Nasher Sculpture Center); the Whitechapel Gallery and Museum Ludwig in 2009; Museion in Bolzano in 2010; the first US museum retrospective, at the Museum of Modern Art, in 2013, co-organised with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Dallas Museum of Art and bringing together more than 150 objects; the Stedelijk Museum (over 200 works) and the Gropius Bau in 2015-16; Kunsthalle Bern in 2019; Basel and Duesseldorf in 2020-21; and the Neue Nationalgalerie in 2023 with 75 sculptures for her 75th birthday. In 2025 the Liebieghaus in Frankfurt set 18 of her works among a collection spanning about 5,000 years (sources 7, 10, 14-22, 28, 32).
The Hamburger Kunsthalle includes her in "Isa Mona Lisa", a collection presentation of works by more than thirty artists that ran from 18 October 2024 to 11 October 2026; its title comes from a photograph by Wolfgang Tillmans. The page does not count that as a holding, because the museum's page does not itemise which works belong to it.
Chapter 9Prizes and honours, dated
The record shows the Wolfgang Hahn Prize of Museum Ludwig (2002), the Goslar Kaiserring (2017) and the Nasher Prize for sculpture, announced on 25 September 2018 with a presentation planned for 6...
The record shows the Wolfgang Hahn Prize of Museum Ludwig (2002), the Goslar Kaiserring (2017) and the Nasher Prize for sculpture, announced on 25 September 2018 with a presentation planned for 6 April 2019 in Dallas and a USD 100,000 award. The Nasher jury that year was Phyllida Barlow, Huma Bhabha, Pablo Leon de la Barra, Lynne Cooke, Okwui Enwezor, Briony Fer, Yuko Hasegawa, Hou Hanru and Sir Nicholas Serota, according to the Nasher press release.
Chapter 10The public auction record is thin and mostly behind logins
A search of the houses' own pages produced one fully readable result.
A search of the houses' own pages produced one fully readable result. Ketterer Kunst in Munich sold Weltempfaenger "Boston" (1991), a small cast-concrete piece with a retractable antenna, as lot 183 of its Contemporary Art Day Sale of 9 June 2023 for EUR 88,900 including the surcharge against an estimate of EUR 30,000; the page does not give a separate hammer price. Sotheby's offered the concrete-and-steel Doppelraum (1990) on 10 February 2016 in London at an estimate of GBP 150,000 to 200,000, but the lot page shows no result without a login; two other Sotheby's lots read (2023 and 2024) behaved the same way, and the Phillips pages list sold prices without stating the sale date or whether the premium is included.
Aggregator sites quote higher figures, which are not repeated here because they could not be traced to a lot page. A reader who needs the record should pull the houses' price databases directly and separate hammer from premium.
Chapter 11What the record leaves open
Four points are open. First, whether the Baden-Baden Rose in the Villa Schriever garden can be seen from public ground is not settled by the sources read.
Four points are open. First, whether the Baden-Baden Rose in the Villa Schriever garden can be seen from public ground is not settled by the sources read. Second, the catalogue raisonne read here covers 1961 to 1996; for later work, including the assemblages and the 2010s paintings and sculptures, the gallery and the exhibition catalogues are the reference. Third, a full auction record needs the houses' own databases. Fourth, the closing date of the 2025 Frankfurt show moved from 31 August to 26 October 2025, as David Zwirner's listing and the museum's later announcement show.
What is documented
Technique
The surviving work
- What is accepted
- Works documented in Galerie Buchholz's Catalogue Raisonne 1961-1996 (2026), the exhibition catalogues named on this page and the gallery's outdoor-project list.
- What is contested
- No dispute about authorship of any work was found in the sources read.
- Who rules on attribution
- Galerie Buchholz publishes the catalogue raisonne and documents the outdoor projects; the studio's own certificate practice was not found in the sources read. A Sotheby's lot page records Galleria Mario Pieroni, Rome, as the 1990s source of Doppelraum (1990); the galleries that list her shows are Galerie Buchholz, Jahn und Jahn, David Zwirner and Hauser & Wirth.
Catalogue raisonne
Questions about Isa Genzken
Who is Isa Genzken?
Sculptor; Installation artist; Photographer; Filmmaker.
Where can you see work by Isa Genzken?
Stadthalle Bielefeld, forecourt (Bielefeld); Arnulfstrasse (triple sports facility) (Munich); Garden of the Villa Schriever, Lichtentaler Allee (Baden-Baden); Leipziger Messe, Glass Hall west entrance (Leipzig); Lawn by the Aa lake, Muenster (Muenster).
What does the market for Isa Genzken look like?
Public auction data is sparse in the sources read. Ketterer Kunst sold the cast-concrete Weltempfaenger "Boston" (1991) on 9 June 2023 for EUR 88,900 including surcharge, against an estimate of EUR 30,000; the page gives no separate hammer price.
What is still unresolved about Isa Genzken?
Can the Baden-Baden Rose in the Villa Schriever garden be seen from public ground?
Open questions
- Can the Baden-Baden Rose in the Villa Schriever garden be seen from public ground?
- Which later volumes of the catalogue raisonne are announced?
- What do hammer and premium look like for the sales where the houses show a result only after login?
- Is there a studio certificate scheme for works from the 2000s onward?
Sources
- 1Galerie Buchholz, "Isa Genzken: Aussenprojekte" exhibition page, Berlin, 27 November 2018 to 26 January 2019, with the gallery's table of her outdoor projects (location, year, "since" dates, materials, dimensions). galeriebuchholz.de/exhibitions/...
- 2Stadt Bielefeld, Kulturamt (Klaus Hansen), public-art entry "Isa Genzken, Der Spiegel" (Herforder Strasse, forecourt of the Stadthalle; steel; H 30.00 m, W 27.05 m, D 20.00 m; 1992), as reproduced in the vhs Bielefeld programme 2026/2 with the source line www.bielefeld.de/kunst-im-oeffentlichen-raum. vhs-bielefeld.de/fileadmin/...
- 3nrw-skulptur.net, "Der Spiegel / The Mirror", Isa Genzken, 1992, Bielefeld, in front of the Stadthalle, Willy-Brandt-Platz 1; steel. nrw-skulptur.net/en/...
- 4MuenchenWiki, "Arnulfstrasse", entry for house number 270: "X (Kunst im oeffentlichen Raum), eine 3m hohe Stahlbetonkonstruktion von Isa Genzken, aufgestellt 1994". muenchenwiki.de/w/...
- 5Wikipedia (German), "Lichtentaler Allee": on the right-hand side, contemporary art can be seen in the park of the Villa Schriever. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
- 6Galerie Buchholz, artist page Isa Genzken: exhibition list from 1987 and publications (Catalogue Raisonne 1961-1996, 2026; 75/75, 2024; Aussenprojekte / Projects for Outside, 2020). galeriebuchholz.de/artists/...
- 7The Museum of Modern Art, press release "Isa Genzken: Retrospective brings together almost 40 years of Genzken's inventive and deeply influential work in the first U.S. museum retrospective of the artist", New York, 13 November 2013. moma.org/documents/...
- 8Nasher Sculpture Center, press release "Nasher Sculpture Center Announces Isa Genzken as Winner of the 2019 Nasher Prize", Dallas, 25 September 2018 (jury, quotations, biography). nashersculpturecenter.org/Documents/...
- 9Jahn und Jahn, Munich, "CV Isa Genzken" (PDF, created 16 December 2025): education, 2017 Kaiserring, selected solo exhibitions 1976 to 2025 with venues. jahnundjahn.com/media_files/...
- 10Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie, "Special Opening Day and Festive Programme to Honour Isa Genzken on her 75th Birthday on Monday, 27 November 2023" (Isa Genzken. 75/75, 13 July to 27 November 2023, 75 sculptures). smb.museum/en/...
- 11Hamburger Kunsthalle, "Isa Mona Lisa", Galerie der Gegenwart, 18 October 2024 to 11 October 2026 (collection presentation of 33 artists including Genzken; title from a Wolfgang Tillmans photograph). hamburger-kunsthalle.de/de/...
- 12e-flux announcement "Isa Genzken: OIL", German Pavilion, 52nd Venice Biennale, 10 June to 21 November 2007; curator Nicolaus Schafhausen; published 31 March 2007. e-flux.com/announcements/...
- 13German Pavilion 2007 (official site), "Isa Genzken is the artist representing Germany for the 52nd International Art Exhibition of the Biennale in Venice" (artist statement of the commission, materials and the meaning of the title Oil). 2007.deutscher-pavillon.org/english/...
- 14e-flux announcement "Isa Genzken, Open, Sesame!", Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 15 August to 15 November 2009, developed with the Whitechapel Gallery. e-flux.com/announcements/...
- 15Whitechapel Gallery, "Isa Genzken: Open, Sesame!", 5 April to 21 June 2009, organised in collaboration with Museum Ludwig, Cologne. whitechapelgallery.org
- 16e-flux announcement "Isa Genzken: Mach Dich huebsch!", Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 29 November 2015 to 6 March 2016; curators Beatrix Ruf and Martijn van Nieuwenhuyzen; first major retrospective in the Netherlands, over 200 works. e-flux.com/announcements/...
- 17Berliner Festspiele, Gropius Bau, "Isa Genzken: Make Yourself Pretty!", 9 April to 26 June 2016, developed with the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. berlinerfestspiele.de/en/...
- 18ArtMap, "Isa Genzken: Models For Outdoor Projects", Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, 15 January to 17 April 2016. artmap.com/bundeskunsthalle/...
- 19ArtMap, "Isa Genzken", Kunsthalle Bern, 23 February to 28 April 2019. artmap.com/kunsthallebern/...
- 20Kunstmuseum Basel, "Isa Genzken: Works from 1973 to 1983", Gegenwart, 5 September 2020 to 24 January 2021; curator Soeren Grammel. kunstmuseumbasel.ch/en/...
- 21Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, "Isa Genzken. Works from 1973 to 1983", K21, Duesseldorf, 8 May to 5 September 2021, adapted from the Basel show and shown with "Here and Now". kunstsammlung.de/en/...
- 22David Zwirner, news "Isa Genzken: Isa Genzken Meets Liebieghaus", Liebieghaus, Frankfurt, 6 March to 26 October 2025 (the museum's January 2025 announcement gave 31 August 2025 as the closing date). davidzwirner.com/news/...
- 23DNAinfo Chicago, "Isa Genzken exhibit opens Saturday at Museum of Contemporary Art", 11 April 2014 (Retrospective at MCA Chicago, 12 April to 3 August 2014, with MoMA and the Dallas Museum of Art). dnainfo.com/chicago/...
- 24Ketterer Kunst, Sale 541, Contemporary Art Day Sale, Munich, 9 June 2023, lot 183, Isa Genzken, Weltempfaenger "Boston" (1991), estimate EUR 30,000; sold EUR 88,900 "(incl. surcharge)". kettererkunst.com/details-e.php
- 25Sotheby's, Contemporary Art Evening Auction L16020, London, 10 February 2016, lot 3, Isa Genzken, Doppelraum (1990), concrete and steel, estimate GBP 150,000 to 200,000; the lot page shows no result without a login. sothebys.com/en/...
- 27Leipziger Messe, "Contemporary Masterpieces at the Leipziger Messe": Genzken's monumental Rose at the west entrance of the Glass Hall, in the art collection of the Exhibition Centre opened in 1996. leipziger-messe.de/en/...
- 28Wikipedia (German), "Isa Genzken" (education, awards, exhibition list with catalogue dates, literature), read as a secondary overview and checked against the primary sources above. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
- 29Stadtwiki Baden-Baden, "Villa Schriever": "Im Garten befindet sich eine Rosenskulptur von Isa Genzken" (Lichtentaler Allee 74). stadtwiki-baden-baden.de/wiki/...
- 30welt-der-form.net, SkulpTour Muenchen, Isa Genzken, X (1994), Dreifachsportanlage, Arnulfstrasse, Munich; reinforced concrete, 300 x 240 x 240 cm. welt-der-form.net/Muenchen/...
- 31Wikimedia Commons file page and API metadata, File:Genzgen-isa-140809-koeln-ludwigmuseum.jpg (photographer Hpschaefer, CC BY-SA 3.0, "German Sculptor Isa Genzken at exhibition opening, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 2009.08.14"). commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/...
- 33Liebieghaus newsroom, press information confirming that "Isa Genzken Meets Liebieghaus" was extended to 26 October 2025. newsroom.liebieghaus.de/en/...
- 32Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, "Isa Genzken Meets Liebieghaus" (e-flux announcement): 18 works by Genzken among the collection, curated by Vinzenz Brinkmann, 6 March 2025 onward. e-flux.com/announcements/...
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