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121211: Unteres Belvedere Curt Stenvert NEODADAPOP
Unteres Belvedere
Curt Stenvert NEODADAPOP
05.10.11 – 15.1.12
An international 20th century artist from Austria
The solo exhibition in the Orangerie (Lower Belvedere) is currently devoted to the versatile artist Curt Stenvert and at the same time Manfred Lang is presenting individual works by Stenvert in his gallery on Seilerstätte, including collages, show cases and sculptures.
In 1920, Curt Stenvert (nee Kurt Steinwender) was born in Vienna and changed his name in 1969. Stenvert grew up in a worker’s family in Vienna and his mother died when he was very young. He began his studies in 1942 under Karl Sterrer at the Vienna Academy of Applied Arts and was forced to interrupt his studies several times during the war. On account of his grandfather’s Russian origin he was often confronted with the horrors of the Nazi regime.
But before he dealt with the atrocities and absurdities of war – see his sculpture “Stalingrad”, 1967 - he focused on motion sketches, which he conducted in a constructivist and cubistic style. The Belevedere shows a violin player that is comparable to Miro’s motion studies. The influence of Viennese kinetic art, e.g. by Erika Giovanna Klien plays an equally important role as Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Soon he turned to film and founded a production company together with his second wife in 1957. His first experimental film “The Raven” (1951) is shown at the Belvedere. “Viennese women in the shadow of a metropolis” (1951/1954) is a bitter critique on the immiseration of women on the fringe of society that did not appeal to post-war Austria, while it was widely acclaimed abroad.
His ability to stage figures and dolls dramatically was clear in his work in 1967 “Stalingrad – The Return on Investment of a tyrannicide”. This work consists of three showcases displaying skulls and wolf men in military uniforms eating brains, surrounded by the remains and dirt of combat. Stenvert attempts to show how many lives could have been saved through a targeted tyrannicide in the 1940’s. The work that conveys the misery and ugliness of war in all of its abnormality has a didactic connotation – similar to the Fluxus Art of Wolf Vostell or Richard Lindner. In 1967/68 his showcases were presented at numerous occasions in Paris. Today, they are located in Vienna’s Military History Museum.
In the 1970’s, the artist devoted himself more to painting and developed a “bio-cybernetic manifesto”. The range of Stenvert’s work is extremely colourful and intensive.
Stenvert died in 1992. The current exhibition in the Belvedere attempts to honour an artist who was at the pulse of his time. He combined important international artistic movements with his works and came up with independent artistic solutions. He had a humanistic education and experienced and survived the horrors of the war and the Nazi regime. His films showed a different picture of Austria during the 1950s. The Belevedere offers a good, primarily historic impression, of this exceptional artist, while the exhibition in the Gallery Lang is artistically enlightening.
By Susanne Rohringer
Galerie Lang Wien
1010 Vienna, Seilerstätte 16
Tel: +43 1 512 20 19
Fax: +43 1 512 02 37
Email: glw@glw.at
http://www.glw.at
Opening hours: Tue – Fri 12 – 18 hours, Sat 11 – 17 hours
Unteres Belvedere
1030 Wien, Rennweg 6
Tel: +43 1 795 57-200
Fax: +43 1 795 57-121
email: info@belvedere.at
http://www.belvedere.at
Opening hours: Daily between 10 and 18 hours, Wed 10 – 21 hours
Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville
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121211
Galerie Lang Wien
1010 Wien, Seilerstätte 16
Tel: +43 (0)676 3353 641
Email: glw@glw.at
http://www.galerielangwien.at
Öffnungszeiten: geschlossen
Unteres Belvedere
1030 Wien, Rennweg 6
Tel: +43 1 795 57-200, Fax: +43 1 795 57-121
Email: info@belvedere.at
http://www.belvedere.at
Öffnungszeiten: Täglich 10 bis 18 Uhr, Mittwoch 10 bis 21 Uhr
Galerie Lang Wien
1010 Wien, Seilerstätte 16
Tel: +43 (0)676 3353 641
Email: glw@glw.at
http://www.galerielangwien.at
Öffnungszeiten: geschlossen
Unteres Belvedere
1030 Wien, Rennweg 6
Tel: +43 1 795 57-200, Fax: +43 1 795 57-121
Email: info@belvedere.at
http://www.belvedere.at
Öffnungszeiten: Täglich 10 bis 18 Uhr, Mittwoch 10 bis 21 Uhr
