Hans-Peter Feldmann

Man's Hat with photograph in the hatband

The types of objects Hans-Peter Feldmann is interested in collecting into serial photographic grids or artist’s books are often also found in three dimensional installations. Hats and photographs are regularly part of his appropriations and arrangements. He famously made numerous trips to England in search of old photographs when he was an antique dealer, and then worked in a gift store with his wife when he left the art world in the 1980s. Against authorship and the commodification of art, he never gives titles or dates to his works which have infinite edition possibilities.

The mode of display is paired down to the simplest form of a plain square plinth that nevertheless conveys artistry. The presentation contributes to the re-orientation and re-contextualization of these assembled found objects taken from everyday life. Borsalino-type felt hats carry associations with artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Beuys therefore this work, like pair of shoes and teapot with shadow also in the collection, could be imagined as a form suggestive of portraiture.

The mode of display is paired down to the simplest form of a plain square plinth that nevertheless conveys artistry. The presentation contributes to the re-orientation and re-contextualization of these assembled found objects taken from everyday life. Borsalino-type felt hats carry associations with artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Beuys therefore this work, like pair of shoes and teapot with shadow also in the collection, could be imagined as a form suggestive of portraiture.