Dia Center for the Arts presents a new project by the young German artist Katharina Fritsch. Opening to the public on April 15,1993, the project will be on view at 548 West 22nd Street through June 20, 1993, and then reopen in the Fall. Hours are Thursday through Sunday, 12 noon to 6 pm. Although not site-specific, this monumental work was conceived to debut in New York and has been filtered through the artist's perceptions of this city. A text by the Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico, whose work and writings she much admires, offers clues to the ways Fritsch's vision of Manhattan has framed her abiding preoccupations. De Chirico argues that behind New York's dynamic surfaces "you can find forgotten memories, those memories that return from far away as if in a reverie." They engender a "mysterious state in which spirit and soul, finally relieved from logic and reality, are able to solve cryptic and insoluble problems." As is apparent from a number of sculptures which Fritsch has made in recent years' such buried memories may house nightmarish forms, themselves the archetypes of folklore and myth. In these works she crystallizes in succinct yet epiphanic images states of mind that emerge from the darker shoals of the psyche.

Katharina Fritsch was born in Essen, Germany in 1956. She attended the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Though her work has been exhibited widely in Europe, this is the first major exhibition by Fritsch in America.

A catalogue designed in collaboration with the artist will be available for sale in June 1993. For the duration of the exhibition, Katharina Fritsch has made her multiples available for sale at the Dia bookstore at 548 West 22nd Street. The editions are unlimited and prices range from $200 to $300. For more information about the exhibition catalogue or the multiples, please contact Michelle Marozik, Book Sales Manager at 212-43 1-9232.

Major funding for this project has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency' Washington, D'C. Additional support was received from the Cowles Charitable Trust, the Institut ftir Auslandsbeziehungen, the Dia Art Council, the major annual support group of Dia Center for the Arts, and the Dia Art Circle. International transportation was provided by Lufthansa German Airlines. Support for the 1992-93 exhibitions program has been provided through a generous grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

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For additional information or materials contact:
Ashley Tickle, Dia Art Foundation, New York City, 212.293.5518 or atickle @ diaart.org.