In Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Photography, Film, Video, Sound the Langen Foundation in Neuss presents an extensive selection of works from the Swiss Ringier Collection, marking its first major exhibition in Germany. Curated by Beatrix Ruf and artist Wade Guyton, the exhibition features approximately 500 works, offering an overview of one of the most relevant collections of contemporary art. Spanning works from the late 1960s to the present day, it documents Michael Ringier’s 30 years as a collector and key developments in the art world.
Together, these pieces form a rich and layered portrait of Michael Ringier, a Swiss publisher and media entrepreneur, whose collection of art is deeply intertwined with his personal and professional life, as well as the identity of Ringier, a media company active in 19 countries across Europe and Africa. Since 1997, the company has invited international artists to design its annual reports, granting them complete creative freedom. These collaborations have resulted in creative and intelligent explorations of the role of a media publisher today and its engagement with audiences. Renowned artists including Fischli/Weiss, Maurizio Cattelan, and Sylvie Fleury have contributed to these reports, as has Wade Guyton, whose report featured a one-to-one reproduction of one of his paintings printed in high-resolution detail across hundreds of pages. When compiled, these pages recreate the work in its original dimensions.
The exhibition's subversive title highlights how traditional artistic media continues to inspire new interpretations—both by challenging their conventional boundaries and through intentional artistic ambiguity. Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Photography, Film, Video, Sound re-examines the expectations surrounding what defines a medium and how it shapes our perception. The connection to a global media company like Ringier is evident: from its beginnings in publishing and printing to its evolution into a digitized and diversified corporation, the company has been shaping the relationship between content and medium for over 190 years. Wade Guyton, too, challenges the concept of the medium of painting—whether through his large-format printed works or the strategic use of digital technologies, he questions what a medium can be and how it shapes the art it conveys.
Through these explorations, the exhibition invites viewers to see the collection not merely as a compilation of works but as a dynamic narrative that constantly opens up new perspectives. This approach reflects Michael Ringier’s view of art as a living, integral part of both his entrepreneurial and cultural engagement.
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