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Lot Essay
German neo-conceptual artist Jorinde Voigt’s The Art of Being Happy is a visual response to the book of the same name by German Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860). Voigt created a suite of drawings using graphite and gold leaf, each one a discrete response to one of Schopenhauer’s prescriptions for living one’s best life. The final step in creating one of the drawings, according to Voigt, “is the selection of existent elements to arrange in a matrix, which exports what has emerged to date into a spatial and temporal context, thus making the work into a score” (J. Voigt, "The Art of Being Happy." Jorindevoigt.com. https://jorindevoigt.com/blog/wp-content/wp-content/uploads/CONCEPT-Jorinde-Voigt_EN.pdf). Thus, The Art of Being Happy serves as a visual record of the process behind understanding and grappling with a given text, and the inevitable process of adapting and personalizing its contents.
Often counted among the notable German artists of her generation, Voigt has enjoyed recent solo exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Nürnberg and the Hamburger Banhoff in 2017 and 2016, respectively. Long recognized for her drawing-centric work, Voigt was the 2012 recipient of the Centre George Pompidou Daniel & Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Prize, which honors artists for whom drawing constitutes an important part of their practice. She has taught conceptual drawing at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich, Germany since 2014.
Often counted among the notable German artists of her generation, Voigt has enjoyed recent solo exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Nürnberg and the Hamburger Banhoff in 2017 and 2016, respectively. Long recognized for her drawing-centric work, Voigt was the 2012 recipient of the Centre George Pompidou Daniel & Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Prize, which honors artists for whom drawing constitutes an important part of their practice. She has taught conceptual drawing at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich, Germany since 2014.