Skip to content

Sean Kelly is delighted to announce Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015, a major exhibition featuring fifty years of drawing by Rebecca Horn. This historical presentation, which includes rarely seen works on paper, will open in the New York gallery in January before traveling to Sean Kelly, Los Angeles in March, two cities in which Horn lived and for which she has a strong affinity. Horn’s first exhibition with the gallery in nine years, this significant survey will be the first opportunity for visitors to see many of these critically important works, most of which have never been shown in the United States. The occasion also marks the thirty-four-year professional relationship between Rebecca Horn and Sean Kelly.

Rebecca Horn - Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 - 展覽 - Sean Kelly Gallery

Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 is, I believe, a remarkable exhibition, that has deep meaning for me both artistically, and personally. Prior to moving to America and opening an art gallery, I was Director of Art for the Bath International Festival, in Britain. In 1988, I invited Rebecca Horn to make an exhibition of new site-specific work to be installed throughout the city. Characteristically, it was for Rebecca an extremely ambitious and memorable exhibition. Working so closely with Rebecca at that time completely changed the way I understood how to work with artists and indeed how to install art; I learnt a great deal and owe her an enormous debt. Over the ensuing 34 years, we have made many exhibitions together at venues worldwide, and this is her ninth presentation at the gallery. It has been a privilege to work alongside this remarkable artist for so many years, someone I am honored to call a friend. We are delighted to present this historic exhibition of her drawings, a medium that was always central to her practice. The exhibition will travel from New York to our Los Angeles gallery—two cities Rebecca lived in at various times in her life—and will bring necessary focus to this important aspect of her oeuvre.

-Sean Kelly, January 2023

Rebecca Horn - Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 - 展覽 - Sean Kelly Gallery

This extraordinary exhibition, which includes 55 works on paper, is the first dedicated exclusively to this aspect of Rebecca Horn’s practice, and the most extensive presentation of her work in the United States since her major retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 1993, curated by Germano Celant.

Rebecca Horn - Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 - 展覽 - Sean Kelly Gallery

The earliest works in the exhibition, dating from the mid-1960s, evince Horn’s concern with the human form, bodily appendages, states of transformation, mechanization, and machinery, making evident her dedication to the aesthetic form of performance.

Rebecca Horn - Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 - 展覽 - Sean Kelly Gallery

From her earliest stages as an artist, drawing has been foundational and informed every aspect of Horn’s multi-faceted oeuvre, ranging from performances, which utilize bodily extensions, to feature films, poems, dynamic sculptures, and site-specific installations.

Rebecca Horn - Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 - 展覽 - Sean Kelly Gallery
Rebecca Horn - Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 - 展覽 - Sean Kelly Gallery

In 1968, Horn was hospitalized for a debilitating lung condition brought on by certain sculptural materials she was using. A subsequent period of convalescence at a sanitorium inspired a series of sculptures concerned with the body, isolation, and physical vulnerability.

The transformation of the experience; that is pure art. - Rebecca Horn

Rebecca Horn - Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 - 展覽 - Sean Kelly Gallery

These themes became the artist’s subject, and her proposals for sculptures are documented in these early drawings. Other works, from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, demonstrate the myriad approaches Horn has taken to the form, with each cycle of drawings having a distinct tempo, like the cadence of the poetry or rhythm of the music that have continuously inspired her.

Rebecca Horn - Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 - 展覽 - Sean Kelly Gallery
Rebecca Horn - Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 - 展覽 - Sean Kelly Gallery

Throughout her career, drawing has occupied a central role, with Horn working serially at different moments to create specific bodies of work, ranging from smaller, more intimate pieces to the later, large Bodylandscape works on paper.

Rebecca Horn - Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 - 展覽 - Sean Kelly Gallery
Rebecca Horn - Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 - 展覽 - Sean Kelly Gallery

For her smaller drawings, Horn often worked simultaneously across multiple sheets of paper laid out before her, adding marks and details as she moved delicately and quickly, fluttering across the paper’s surface like a butterfly, touching down on each sheet at various intervals to make her marks.

Rebecca Horn - Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 - 展覽 - Sean Kelly Gallery

From around 2003-2015, Horn produced an impressive group of large-scale works referred to as Bodylandscape, paintings on paper that extended her interest in the body as machine into an autobiographical, performative arena. Incorporating pencil, acrylic, and watercolor and gouache with text, these energetic works are scaled to the artist’s own proportions, defined by the limit to which her arms could extend when building the sometimes-frenzied compositions through the movements and actions of her own body.

Rebecca Horn - Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 - 展覽 - Sean Kelly Gallery

Horn’s progression from attaching performative apparatus to her body in her early work, to creating mark producing automatons and sculptural machines, is synthesized in these stunning works, which replace the replicant machine with the body of the artist, bringing the arc of her career full circle. In 2015, Horn suffered a devastating stroke, which sadly left her unable to continue making drawings, resulting in these psychologically charged works being among the final and finest works on paper that she produced.

Rebecca Horn - Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 - 展覽 - Sean Kelly Gallery
Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Installation view of Rebecca Horn: Labyrinth of the Soul: Drawings 1965-2015 at Sean Kelly, New York, January 7 - February 18, 2023, Photography: Jason Wyche, New York, Courtesy: Sean Kelly

Rebecca Horn, Untitled, 1963

Rebecca Horn

Untitled, 1963

mixed media on paper

paper: 15 3/4 x 14 3/16 inches (40 x 36 cm)

framed: 34 1/4 x 26 3/8 inches (87 x 67 cm)

RH-3017

Lippenmaschine, 1964, pencil and colored pencil on paper

Lippenmaschine, 1964

pencil and colored pencil on paper

paper: 9 7/16 x 10 1/4 inches (24 x 26 cm)

framed: 18 7/8 x 14 15/16 inches (48 x 38 cm)

titled in pencil, lower right: Lippenmaschine

RH-3048

Untitled, 1966, pencil on paper

Untitled, 1966

pencil on paper

paper: 24 x 16 15/16 inches (61 x 43 cm)

framed: 34 1/4 x 26 3/8 inches (87 x 67 cm)

dated in pencil, lower right: 66

RH-3013

Untitled, 1968-1969, pencil on paper

Untitled, 1968-1969

pencil on paper

paper: 7 7/8 x 12 3/16 inches (20 x 31 cm)

framed: 18 7/8 x 14 15/16 inches (48 x 38 cm)

inscribed in pencil, center right:

durchsichtig Plastiq

inscribed in pencil, lower right: geschnürt

RH-3049

Untitled (Coloured Liquids), 1968-1969, pencil and colored pencil on paper

Untitled (Coloured Liquids), 1968-1969

pencil and colored pencil on paper

paper: 7 7/8 x 12 3/16 inches (20 x 31 cm)

framed: 18 7/8 x 14 15/16 inches (48 x 38 cm)

inscribed in pencil, upper left: Farbflüssigkeiten 3

inscribed in pencil, center right: metallhalterung

inscribed in pencil, lower right: gürtel

RH-3052

Einhorn, 1968-1969, pencil on paper

Einhorn, 1968-1969

pencil on paper

paper: 11 13/16 x 8 1/4 inches (30 x 21 cm)

framed: 18 7/8 x 14 15/16 inches (48 x 38 cm)

inscribed in pencil, center right: Damen Einhorn

RH-3053

Paradise Widow, 1975, pencil and blue colored pencil on paper

Paradise Widow, 1975

pencil and blue colored pencil on paper

paper: 23 5/8 x 35 13/16 inches (60 x 91 cm)

framed: 35 7/16 x 47 1/4 inches (90 x 120 cm)

signed and dated in pencil, lower right:

4 - 9 - 75 R. Horn

RH-3012

Passing Through, 1988, pencil and colored pencil on paper

Passing Through, 1988

pencil and colored pencil on paper

paper: 39 3/8 x 27 9/16 inches (100 x 70 cm)

framed: 47 1/4 x 35 7/16 inches (120 x 90 cm)

dated in pencil, lower right: Odenwald Nov. 1988

inscribed in pencil, lower center right:

Life passing through

RH-3009

Foxwatch, 2003, pencil, colored pencil, acrylic, India ink, and

Foxwatch, 2003

pencil, colored pencil, acrylic, India ink, and

Carmignano on paper

paper: 64 15/16 x 59 1/16 inches (165 x 150 cm)

framed: 81 1/2 x 68 7/8 x 1 3/4 inches

(207 x 175 x 4.5 cm)

inscribed in pencil, upper left:

Wolfwatch

Foxwatch

The Nightwatch

goat watch

Love watch

Zentrieren

signed and dated in pencil, lower left:

31.12.2003 R. Horn

RH-BL-3036

Das Tier mit den zwei Rücken, 2003, mixed media on paper

Das Tier mit den zwei Rücken, 2003

mixed media on paper

paper: 12 5/8 x 9 7/16 inches (32 x 24 cm)

framed: 22 1/16 x 18 1/8 inches (56 x 46 cm)

titled and inscribed in pencil, lower right:

Das Tier mit den zwei Rücken 4

RH-3000

Die Zugvögel im Herzen, 2005, pencil, colored pencil, acrylic, India ink, and

Die Zugvögel im Herzen, 2005

pencil, colored pencil, acrylic, India ink, and

Carmignano on paper

paper: 71 5/8 x 59 1/16 inches (182 x 150 cm)

framed: 81 1/2 x 68 7/8 x 1 3/4 inches

(207 x 175 x 4.5 cm)

inscribed in pencil, upper left:

Am Kreuz

die

Zugvögel

im Herzen

der Tod

signed and dated in pencil, lower right:

R. Horn 2005

RH-BL-3039

Land of Floating Meteors (2), 2006, pencil, colored pen, acrylic, India ink, and

Land of Floating Meteors (2), 2006

pencil, colored pen, acrylic, India ink, and

Carmignano on paper

paper: 9 7/16 x 12 5/8 inches (24 x 32 cm)

framed: 18 7/8 x 21 1/4 inches (48 x 54 cm)

signed and dated in pencil, lower right:

R. Horn 2006

RH-3018

King of Crickets, 2008, pencil, colored pencil, acrylic, India ink, and

King of Crickets, 2008

pencil, colored pencil, acrylic, India ink, and

Carmignano on paper

paper: 71 5/8 x 59 1/16 inches (182 x 150 cm)

framed: 81 1/2 x 68 7/8 x 1 3/4 inches

(207 x 175 x 4.5 cm)

inscribed in pencil, upper left:

der

Heuschrecken

König

des Inkareischen

inscribed in colored pencil, center left edge:

Angel Love

signed and dated in pencil, lower right:

R. Horn 4.7.2008

RH-BL-3040

Untitled, 2008, mixed media on paper

Untitled, 2008

mixed media on paper

paper: 12 5/8 x 9 7/16 inches (32 x 24 cm)

framed: 21 1/4 x 18 7/8 inches (54 x 48 cm)

signed and dated in pencil, lower right:

R. Horn 2008

RH-3032

Untitled, 2009, mixed media on paper

Untitled, 2009

mixed media on paper

paper: 9 7/16 x 12 5/8 inches (24 x 32 cm)

framed: 18 7/8 x 21 1/4 inches (48 x 54 cm)

signed and dated in pencil, lower left:

R. Horn 2009

RH-3021

Untitled, 2013, mixed media on paper

Untitled, 2013

mixed media on paper

paper: 12 5/8 x 9 7/16 inches (32 x 24 cm)

framed: 22 1/16 x 18 1/8 inches (56 x 46 cm)

signed, dated, and inscribed in colored pencil,

lower left: 1 R. Horn 2013

RH-3030

Goya's Feuer, 2014, pencil, colored pencil, acrylic, India ink, and

Goya's Feuer, 2014

pencil, colored pencil, acrylic, India ink, and

Carmignano on paper

paper: 71 5/8 x 59 1/16 inches (182 x 150 cm)

framed: 81 1/2 x 68 7/8 x 1 3/4 inches

(207 x 175 x 4.5 cm)

signed, dated, and inscribed in pencil, upper left:

im brennenden Busch

das Schmerz papier

Magdalena

Paris

Sonnenstaub rieselt

auf die Abgrunde (add o)

der Angst

in einem Lorberblatt gespeichert

des Abgrund vogels

30.3.2014

R. Horn

RH-BL-3042

Goya's Augen Wirbel, 2015, acrylic, pencil, and colored pencil on paper

Goya's Augen Wirbel, 2015

acrylic, pencil, and colored pencil on paper

paper: 71 5/8 x 59 1/16 inches (182 x 150 cm)

framed: 81 1/2 x 68 7/8 x 1 3/4 inches

(207 x 175 x 4.5 cm)

dated and titled, upper left:

Goya's Augen Wirbel, 17.6.2015

RH-BL-3044