The exhibition focuses on the reconstruction of the solo exhibition GELB YELLOW JAUNE, which Franz Erhard Walther planned for 1965 but never realized. Eight yellow works by Walther were to be shown in eight rooms of the former Galerie Junge Kunst Fulda: six action pieces, including variations on the elements of the first set of works, and two large site-specific works that anticipate aspects of his later spatial works of the 1970s. While the color uniformity of the works, an homage to Yves Klein, clearly references the contemporary art of the time, the radical nature of the project lies in the action and spatial references of the works.
Image above: Franz Erhard Walther, Aktivierung der „Roten Scheibe“ // Activation of the „Roten Scheibe“, Düsseldorf, 1965 © Archiv Franz Erhard Walther Foundation // Franz Erhard Walther Foundation Archives, Foto // photo: Reiner Ruthenbeck.
The exhibition, conceived with works from 1963/64, highlights a moment in Walther’s artistic development when he had to make the most important decisions in the history of his work. The awareness that he had found a completely new approach with the approximation of the works and the idea of action by the viewers, which he began in March 1963, is met with numerous unresolved questions and debates with the art scene surrounding him at his place of study in Düsseldorf and the Rhineland.
In his diary entries from this period, some of which can be discovered at VILLA, it becomes clear how challenging it was to determine the central ideas behind his work without compromising the radical nature of his approach through variations on an idea, unnecessary elements, or the inclusion of aspects of the contemporary art surrounding him.
The fragility of the years 1964/65 remained undiscovered in the reception of the work for a long time. The focus on the first set of works and the stringency of the 58 objects, which developed from individual sculptural forms into instruments of activation and thus became an elementary part of 20th-century art history, overshadowed the profound questions raised in the early years of their creation.
In those years, it was a matter of life and death – artistically speaking – and the fact that hardly anyone responded to the objects with understanding must have been irritating in the Rhineland in the mid-1960s, which was the European center of the avant-garde at that time.
1964/65 also marked the beginning of a lifelong collaboration between Franz Erhard and Johanna Walther. In their apartment at Talstraße 69 in Düsseldorf, they defined the structures of their division of labor into an artistic and a production part, which was to remain in place for the next half-century. They were united in their focus and seriousness, and Johanna made a conscious decision to invest her technical skills and professional opportunities in Franz Erhard Walther’s artistic enterprise, which she found more exciting in terms of content than any of the alternatives available to her.
In filmed interviews with Johanna and Franz Erhard Walther, they reflect on the situation at that time.
In order to place the GELB YELLOW JAUNE exhibition in the context of the avant-garde projects and actions of that time, the elaborate reconstruction is accompanied by a comprehensive overview of the influential exhibitions of those years in Aachen, Düsseldorf, Krefeld, Cologne, and beyond.
WHEN?
Opening: Friday, 26 September 2025, 5 pm
Exhibition period: Saturday, September 27, 2025 to Sunday, March 1, 2026
Opening hours: Fri. 2–6 pm, Sat. and Sun. 11 am–6 pm
WHERE?
VILLA
Paulustor 4
36037 Fulda
COSTS?
Regular: 6 EUR
Reduced: 4 EUR
