红砖美术馆将于2017年9月16日至10月22日呈现展览"先导-德国非定形艺术"。本次展览是"德国8--德国艺术在中国"的重要组成部分，"德国8--德国艺术在中国" 由范迪安和瓦尔特·斯迈林总策划，红砖美术馆馆长闫士杰担任副总策展人。"先导-德国非定形艺术"聚焦战后德国最重要的抽象艺术流派"非定形艺术"的某些共性特征，以及艺术家在面对个人艺术理想时所作出的不同探索与选择，展览中的作品均系首度与中国观众见面。
　　德国非定形绘画的根本概念基本同于法国的"塔希主义"，主张画家应挣脱环境对其的影响，由理智和情绪主导的工作方式，非常有利于即时创作出愉悦积极的形象，即使没有肖像研究的知识，也无碍人们解读这些形象。1950年代之后，德国开始了关于"艺术的位置"激烈的哲学和社会学争论：在英雄主义至上以及所谓的"堕落艺术"时代之后，艺术的自由存于何方？艺术家是应该从现实中"解放"自己，还是应该如实地描述现实世界？在这个时期，德国许多画家放弃了曾经的现实主义，转而从事抽象艺术，德国非定形艺术由此应运而生。
　　此次参展的艺术家不仅是非定形艺术运动中最重要的参与者与发起者，同时也是战后德国艺术的主要代表。这批艺术家追求打破传统规则与惯性的表达方式，尤其在莱茵兰地区，以皮特·布吕宁、卡尔·奥托·格兹、格哈德·胡美、伯纳德·舒尔茨和埃米尔·舒马赫为代表的艺术家强调他们对巴黎现代艺术的浓厚兴趣，致力于抽象形式的探索。生活在柏林的弗雷德·提勒，受所居环境的感染，衷情现实主义，倒成了某种意义上的"孤军奋战者"。
　　从20世纪50年代到千禧年之后的时间跨度内，"先导-德国非定形艺术"呈现了六位艺术家不同创作时期的经典作品。展览中的50以及60年代的作品展示了受国际非定形艺术影响，投身动势抽象绘画创作的德国艺术家们难得一见的早期作品。本次展览也呈现出每一位艺术家高度个性化、自主化的视觉语言，尤其从70年代开始，德国非定形艺术家通过引入文本、制图符号和各种物体，力图将抽象艺术转变成主题更加明确，有时也更具批判意识的叙事绘画。布吕宁和胡美都是杜塞尔多夫美术学院的教授，他们是这新一轮艺术对话的先驱；这一时期，居住科隆的舒尔茨也想将对现实的一些隐喻加入他的作品中，他将这种方式称作"米高福"（Migofs）。而格兹、舒马赫和提勒则一直钟情于更加纯粹的抽象绘画。
　　红砖美术馆试图让中国公众看到，艺术家"隐身"于作品之后，而这些在艺术史和同时代都极具辨识度的经典作品，作为一种视觉的抽象哲学，使公众更加真实地感知德国抽象艺术的发展轨迹，以及其对战后德国艺术产生的持久影响。
　　Prologue - German Informel Art
　　From September 16 to October 22, Red Brick Art Museum is proud to present Prologue - German Informel Art. This exhibition is an important part of Deutschland 8 - Deutsche Kunst in China, with Fan Di'an and Walter Smerling as the general curators and Yan Shijie, director of Red Brick Art Museum, as a deputy general curator. Prologue - German Informel Art focuses on the common traits of Informel, post-war Germany's most important abstract art group, and the different explorations and choices these artists made as they confronted their personal artistic ideals.
　　The fundamental concept of Informel painting in Germany and Tachism in France liberated the artist from all the influences of his environment. Intellectually and emotionally inflected working methods facilitated the production of immediate, joyful, and positive images, which were able to be read and understood worldwide without any knowledge of iconography. In 1950s Germany, fierce philosophical and sociological debates were conducted on the position of art. Where does the freedom of art stand following the diktat of heroism and the degenerate art of the National Socialist era? Should artists liberate themselves from the reality of their surroundings or should they give an account of the world in realistic images? During this time, many painters abandoned any notions of realistic art at an early stage, and turned to abstraction. Informel art in Germany was born.
　　The participating artists are the initiators and most important members of the Informel movement, but they are also key representatives of post-war German art. These artists sought expression far beyond the traditional rules and conventions. Particularly in the Rhineland region, artists such as Peter Brüning, K.O. G?tz, Gerhard Hoehme, Bernard Schultze, and Emil Schumacher underscored their aesthetic affinity with contemporary art in Paris by their commitment to abstraction. Only Fred Thieler in Berlin, with his residential propensity for realism, became a lone warrior. 
　　Prologue - German Informel Art presents classic works by these six artists, made at different times from the 1950s to the year 2000. These works from the 1950s and 1960s are rare early pieces by German artists who threw themselves into active abstract painting, reflecting the influence of international Art Informel. The show highlights the highly personal, autonomous visual language of every one of these artists. By introducing texts, cartographic symbols, and all manner of objects, painters in the 1970s endeavored to transform abstraction into a more thematically focused and critical narrative. Brüning and Hoehme, both professors at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, were pioneers of this new dialogue. Even at an early stage, the Cologne-based Bernard Schultze would insert small, concealed allusions to reality in his art, ie. in the so-called Migofs. G?tz, Schumacher, and Thieler remained loyal to abstraction.
　　Red Brick Art Museum wishes Chinese audiences to see that, after the artist behind the easel was effaced, these highly recognizable works, both art historically and in their own time, can be read like a visual philosophy of abstraction. We hope that the public will gain a clearer understanding of the development of German abstract art and its long-standing influence on post-war German art.