Hanne Darboven - If polite, why not peculiar

Offset print, signed, numbered, 59.5 x 41.8 cm, edition: 20, unframed. The edition “If polite why not peculiar”, is a signed offset print in black and white, which was published in 1993 in an edition of 20. In the middle it shows the popular print of a singing cat with the inscription “Jive” as a reference to the swing music of the fifties and is decorated with various inscriptions. The dedication “Dear Jörg 30.4.93” is possibly addressed to Jörg Schellmann, the inscription “Hanne Darboven, exlibris, if polite why not peculiar, Hanne + Micky” refers to the use of the motif as an exlibris and to the goat that Darboven loved dearly called Mickey. The title of the work – “if good, why not strange” – was taken up again by Darboven in an artist's book in 1994. Hanne Darboven (born 1941 in Munich, died 2009 in Hamburg) is one of the most important representatives of conceptual art in Germany. Her works are determined by numerical coding, word texts or photographs. The systems it contains are based on simple series of numbers with complex sequences of variations.