design by accident

The exhibition is based on the book 'design by accident' that was published in 1968. An exemplary of the book was sent to each of the participating artists. How they used it for a contribution to the exhibition remained totally open.

The intention of this book is to examine natural forms occurring in ACCIDENTAL EFFECTS that are produced not by the artist, but by elemental forces at work on the pigments - very much like the accidental effects produced at the seashore by the action of gravity, heat, cold, waves, and the action of wind on water, sand, mud, and rocks. (...) In the act of making the various designs and shapes shown in this book, the artist cannot but be impressed by their universal, all-permeating character, how they occur throughout the natural world in completely unrelated living organisms, as well as in inanimate things. Another fact also becomes apparent: No matter how the artist tries to escape from images of real things, the human mind seems to insist on trying to see realistic images in designs that are themselves an attempt to flee realism. (James F. O'Brian)

design by accident
Dover Publications, Inc., NY, 1968

Künstler: Tobias Buche, Ernst Caramelle, Raphael Danke, Ceal Floyer, Karl Holmqvist, Dani Jakob, Marie Jager, Alice Könitz, Maria Pask, Daniel Roth, Michael Stevenson, Josef Strau, Danh Vo, Klaus Weber, Claudia Wieser, Christine Würmell