Come On!/Haydi! Franz Ackermann Artist Book

This artist book is the most comprehensive book on the German artist Franz Ackermann. It is a kind of a ”sketch book” of the artist accompanied by a text of Carmela Thiele and a Glossary giving hints towards understanding his oeuvre. It was published on the occasion of the exhibition titled Come On! by Franz Ackermann that took place on September 14–October 15, 2017 at Dirimart Dolapdere. Franz Ackermann generates enthusiastic paintings and installations that disclose different aspects of tourism, based on themes like globalization and urban life, inspired by his backpack travels in all around the world’s megacities. With his first major series Mental Maps he has created watercolor paintings that combine the street maps’ sensitivity to reflect the truth and his own interpretation of the cities where he has been to. Franz Ackermann designed large-scale dynamic installations using components such as paintings, photographs, wall drawings, sculptures, and structures resembling advertising panels. Although traveling and the documentation thereof play a central role in the artist’s work, his most important medium remains painting; using murals and installations, he escalates its suggestive power to the absolute limit. How potent his continually expanding cosmos –consisting of action (travel), reflection (internalized theory), and painting– still, after twenty years of work, is manifest in his newest paintings taken into this artist book. Franz Ackermann has exhibited extensively internationally, including solo exhibitions at Portikus Frankfurt am Main (1997); Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2000); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2002); Kunsthalle Basel (2002); Irish Museum of Modern Art (2005); Kunstmuseum St Gallen (2008); Kunstmuseum Bonn (2009); Faena Arts Center, Buenos Aires (2012); Mental Maps - Eikones, Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (2014); Dessins, Daniel Templon, Paris (2016); Come On!, Dirimart Dolapdere, Istanbul (2017); and group exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2005); Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon (2005); Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009, Tate Britain, London (2009); and Mai 36 Showroom, Zurich (2017).