Rodney Graham, Allegory of Folly: Study for an Equestrian Monument in the Form of a Wind Vane, 2005. Lightbox, two parts, each: 306 x 141 x 18 cm © Rodney Graham. Photo: Tom Bisig, Basel

BASEL.- For the first time, Schaulager is opening its spaces to an exhibition that includes many artists. This year, the institution for image storage is presenting works from the collection of the Kunstmuseum Basel that needed a place to stay temporarily during the Kunstmuseum’s large van Gogh exhibition. Having been liberated from their familiar arrangement, these famous works from Holbein to Tillmans can be rediscovered.

This black-and-white photography, presented in two vertical-format light boxes, shows a man in Renaissance clothing, sitting backwards on a white mechanical horse and reading a telephone book. Allegory of Folly: Study for an Equestrian Monument in the Form of a Wind Vane is the title the Canadian artist Rodney Graham has given this work from 2005. The title alludes to Praise of Folly, one of the best-known works of Erasmus of Rotterdam, which was illustrated by Hans Holbein the Younger. The man on the horse is easily identifiable as Erasmus reading, as portrayed by Holbein five hundred years ago.

Graham’s work can thus be seen as a contemporary look at earlier art. Today’s look at the art of the centuries is precisely the point of the exhibition titled Holbein to Tillmans – and so is the associated experience of “old” paintings being as topical as “new” ones.