Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed at VAN HORN: Art, Space, and Material in Düsseldorf

A Dialogue of Material, Space, and Memory at VAN HORN

With Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, VAN HORN in Düsseldorf opens an exhibition that brings two distinct artistic positions into a surprisingly precise dialogue. Pip Culbert and Gerhard Hoehme meet here not merely as positions in art history, but as related movements in search: both transform found material into open image spaces, both think of line, surface, and volume as a living relationship to space. The exhibition runs from September 4 to October 24, 2026, and builds on an exhibition practice that in Düsseldorf has stood for concentrated work observation and high curatorial quality for years. ([van-horn.net](https://van-horn.net/))

When the Existing Becomes Art

The title refers to an English wedding ritual that evokes luck, memory, and new beginnings. Exactly from this, the exhibition develops its poetic tension: The old does not disappear but remains as a trace, as a structure, as a memory in the new state of the work. VAN HORN describes the presentation as the first joint exhibition of the two artists; the focus is on the reinterpretation of materials that are released from their original context and transformed into a new visual vocabulary. ([van-horn.net](https://van-horn.net/current-exhibition/?utm_source=openai))

Pip Culbert: Seam Lines as Open Drawing

Pip Culbert works with shirts, bags, tents, and fabrics. Functional things become fragile frameworks, seams become lines, textiles become drawing in space. Her practice follows a radical reduction: what is superfluous falls away; what remains is structure, tension, and an aesthetic experience between sculpture, drawing, and installation. The documented connections to her work refer to Culbert's international exhibition biography and a handling of everyday material that transforms the ordinary into a quiet, concentrated form of art. ([van-horn.net](https://van-horn.net/current-exhibition/?utm_source=openai))

Gerhard Hoehme: Painting that Reaches into Space

Gerhard Hoehme is one of the defining figures of European abstraction and Informel. The ZKM biography highlights how he found connections in Düsseldorf to Jean Fautrier and Jean Dubuffet, co-founded Galerie 22 in 1957, and served as a professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1960 to 1984. Crucial to his art is the expansion of the pictorial space: Hoehme detached the image from the conventional frame, worked with string, plastic tubes, objects, and drawings, and understood the work as an energetic field that includes the space before the image. ([zkm.de](https://zkm.de/en/persons/gerhard-hoehme))

An Exhibition about Structure, Energy, and Perception

The juxtaposition makes visible how closely the two artistic practices are connected. Culbert transforms fabric into line, Hoehme transforms line into space. Both reduce, both open up, both make the viewers active participants in a contemplation of works where materiality, light, and spatial presence play a central role. According to VAN HORN, the exhibition relies on a significant private collection from Meerbusch as well as on the estate of Pip Culbert from New Zealand. ([van-horn.net](https://van-horn.net/current-exhibition/?utm_source=openai))

The Exhibition Atmosphere in Düsseldorf

VAN HORN is located at Ackerstraße 99 in Düsseldorf-Flingern and shows contemporary art in an environment that has stood for carefully curated exhibitions, dialogues between generations, and a clear focus on both material and conceptual questions for years. The gallery is open Thursday and Friday from 1 PM to 6 PM, and Saturday from 12 PM to 4 PM. ([visitduesseldorf.de](https://www.visitduesseldorf.de/attraktionen/van-horn-3e7e7ef4f7?utm_source=openai))

For those interested in art history, installation, drawing, and the poetic power of material, this offers an art experience of great density. This exhibition promises no loud gesture but a subtle, lasting aesthetic experience: a slow reading of seams, lines, traces, and spatial shifts. A visit is absolutely worthwhile, as two generations of modernity meet here in a present of precise perception. ([van-horn.net](https://van-horn.net/current-exhibition/?utm_source=openai))

Official Channels of VAN HORN:

• Instagram: no official profile found
• Facebook: no official profile found
• YouTube: no official profile found
• Website: https://van-horn.net/

Sources:

• VAN HORN - Current Exhibition
• VAN HORN - Official Website
• ZKM - Gerhard Hoehme
• Visit Düsseldorf - VAN HORN
• MKM Museum Küppersmühle - Gerhard Hoehme