Walter Dahn · Have Love Will Travel
This exhibition will offer extensive insights into Walter Dahn's work from 1986 onward, showcasing the versatility of an artist who first became known in the early 1980s as a key representative of the "Mülheimer Freiheit" art movement, primarily through his paintings. Largely created after this era, the works shown in this exhibition illustrate Dahn's expanded understanding of painting, as well as his own multi-layered reference system, which picks up on influences from (popular) culture and the history of ideas.
Have Love Will Travel, the title of the seventh exhibition at Haus Mödrath, is borrowed from a song by the Sonics and highlights the strong presence of music in Dahn's artistic work, which constitutes a central focus here.
The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue with essays by Diedrich Diederichsen and Oliver Tepel that shed light on the symbiotic role of music in Dahn's work from musical, cultural, and art-historical perspectives.
Walter Dahn was born in 1954 in Sanct Antonius in der Heyde . From 1971 to 1977 he studied with Joseph Beuys at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and was awarded a Meisterschüler degree in 1975. Since 1976, his work has been presented at numerous solo and group exhibitions both in Germany and abroad. From 1995 to 2017, Dahn was a professor of painting at Braunschweig University of Art (HBK).
IN MEMORY: WALTER DAHN 1954–2024
WALTER DAHN, Untitled, 1992 (Photographed by Dinah Frank)
We are saddened and stunned to announce the death of Walter Dahn today.
Just three weeks ago, shortly after his 70th birthday, we opened his comprehensive solo exhibition in Haus Mödrath.
At the opening, Walter Dahn sat for many hours in the warm autumn sun, surrounded by many close friends, his students, long-time companions and admirers.
This exhibition fulfilled a long-standing, great and very personal heartfelt wish for us.
We were able to spend a wonderful time with him and share in his world and his wisdom in countless conversations.
Walter Dahn made us all “rich”.
We are infinitely sad but also full of joy and great gratitude that we were able to spend such an intensive time with him.
It is also a consolation for us that Walter Dahn was so deeply happy and so satisfied with his exhibition and the publication.
In Walter Dahn, we and the whole world have lost an exceptional person and a great artist who wrote art history and inspired generations of young artists.
HAVE LOVE WILL TRAVEL.
Danke Walter.
Haus Mödrath, Kerpen