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English summaries April 23 - May 5
Kunsthaus Muerz
Umober Huberum
27.04.2013 – 16.06.2013
By Margareta Sandhofer
“An artist should be a generalist” (1) – Oswald Oberhuber expressed this in a resolute and extremely cheerful opening speech at the exhibition “Umober Huberum” in the Kunsthaus Muerz.
The playful lightness in the title, in Oberhuber’s speech, in his exhibited works, are reflected in the selection of works by Oberhuber’s former students: Ernst Caramelle, Franz Graf, Brigitte Kowanz, Eva Schlegel, Franz Vana and Hans Weigand.
Oswald Oberhuber was a professor and university rector, artist and gallery owner. Wherever he showed up, he left a lasting impression. Foremost, he revolutionized the university operations and provided students with a new perspective by negating, overthrowing or subverting conventional hierarchies. The sculptural pieces, all originating from his different work phases, and positioned in the middle of the room, represent the manifestation of this attitude. Oberhuber’s combination of serious depth and entertaining joyfulness, well-founded theoretical concept and impulsive spontaneity result in liveliness and dynamics – something much younger artists meticulously attempt to achieve.
The paintings, sculptures and installations by the six artists “Um()ober Huber(her)um” (around Oberhuber) correspond with the oeuvre of their former teacher and permanent mentor with autonomous self-understanding and authenticity.
Brigitte Kowanz chose some works from her series of mirrored cubes with neon-characters that shine in their sublime reduction with mysterious significance and elegant aloofness. Seemingly more eloquent but at the same time ambiguous is Franz Vana’s work “Glances shed dust”. Opposite is Hans Weigand’s large-format painting depicting a humungous wave swashing over a surfer whose heroic gesture is in grotesque contrast to his hopeless situation. Ernst Caramelle shows delicate aquarelles and one of his sensitive light paintings. Franz Graf surprises with his white geometric painting and his dark portrait of a woman that leads on to Eva Schlegel’s metaphoric projections. She filmed astronauts in free fall and intertwined the scenes with texts and quotes dealing with the razor-thin line between flying and falling. The installation, which was already presented at the MAK in 2010, is now more compact – both in content and formality and has gained complexity.
Brigitte Kowanz focussed on her initiative to present Oswald Oberhuber as the artist personality and his impetus-giving resonance with precision and consequence. In their decisive differentiation the individual artistic positions set forth the freedom of “joyful school days” (2) under the directorship of Oswald Oberhuber – who, in his serenity as an “generalist” and proponent of a permanent artistic change, facilitated, enhanced and ultimately challenged the development of original quality. In “Umober Huberum” they turn into a heterogeneous and sovereign overview through a manifold discourse centering on Oswald Oberhuber.
Kunsthaus Muerz
8680 Mürzzuschlag, Wiener Straße 35
Tel: +43 3852 56200
Fax: +43 3852 56209
email: kunst@kunsthaus.muerz.at
www.kunsthausmuerz.at
Opening hours: Thu - Sat 10-18, Sun 10-16 hours
mumok Mueum moderner Kunst
Verena Dengler – Fantastic Socialism
23.02.2013 – 12.06.2013
By Wolfgang Pichler
They are very location-specific, these Vienna-typical punch lines and quotes that form a recurring theme throughout the entire exhibition - and that’s why the title spontaneously brings the expression “Red Vienna” to mind, which seems to have existed for the past 260 years. Unfortunately this general reference to Vienna is the only connecting element of the otherwise rather discordant and uninspired exhibition. Even if some of the works, such as the painting on the floor which functions as a carpet, are examples of accomplished independent work, they do not hide the fact that the artist was overwhelmed by the size of the rooms. A reduction to just a few objects and paintings, such as the canvas titled “Senegalblueblackredgreen”, which is faintly reminiscent of Twombly, would be just as desirable as omitting some of the punch lines. Nevertheless she is a very talented artist – something that becomes evident in her sketches and small pictures, which were apparently mounted at random on almost ingeniously ugly moveable walls. The title “Fantastic Socialism” already insinuates that this show aims to be more than a presentation of artistic objects - and it is exactly this claim that she fails to meet.
mumok Museum moderner Kunst
1070 Vienna, Museumsquartier, Museumsplatz 1
Tel: +43 1 52 500
Fax: +43 1 52 500 13 00
email: info@mumok.at
www.mumok.at
Opening hours: Daily: 10.00–18.00 hours, Do: 10.00–21.00 hours
Moeller Fine Art
Lyonel Feininger: Drawn from Nature, Carved in Wood / T. Lux Feininger: Sixty Years of Painting
27.04.2013 – 13.07.2013
By Stefan Kobel
Lyonel Feiniger was supposedly a loving and humorous father. He is regarded as one of the inventors of comic strips, for his impromptu drawings, and his designs and constructions of toy trains. Several of his creations, mainly his early work, are now displayed at Achim Moeller Fine Art in Berlin. Including the meticulous preliminary drawings for wooden toys.
The artist - who jokingly signed some of his paintings as “Leinoel Einfinger” (linseed oil one-finger) also taught at the Bauhaus and was among the most renowned 20th century artists. He set very high standards for his sons - one of them (Laurence) became a musicologist and the other (Andreas) a photographer and, as such, pioneered as a photography teacher.
Merely the youngest, Theodore Lux, born 1910, followed in his father’s footsteps. And, as the show demonstrates, they turned out to be a bit too large for him. One dozen oil paintings document the artist’s development, with a huge gap in the 50’s and 60’s. It all starts with seascapes and sailboats with a marked likeness to comic strips and yet at the same time attempting to show a certain amount of realism – but they are miles away from his father’s ingenuity, who was capable of creating bold windjammers and entire ports with just a few pencil strokes.
Theodore Lux’s (T. Lux) efforts to disassociate himself from his father are obvious. But his father’s oeuvre is too overpowering and prevents him from developing his own convincing visual language. Later T. Lux shifted his attention to Cubism, Surrealism and Dadaism, which mainly influenced the work he created in the 70’s and 80’s and which is now exhibited in Berlin. All of this is absolutely worthy of respect and partly has its charm. But it doesn’t suffice to make an innovative contribution to art history.
Moeller Fine Art
10963 Berlin, Tempelhofer Ufer 11
Tel: +49 30 252 940 83
Fax: +49 30 252 940 84
email: mail@moellerfineart.com
www.moellerfineart.com
Opening hours: Monday - Friday, 11 am - 6 pm and by appointment
Artmark Galerie Wien
Florentina Pakosta
25.04.2013 – 01.06.2013
By Hannah Winkelbauer
To mark the occasion of Austrian artist Florentina Pakosta’s eightieth birthday in October, the Galerie Artmark is currently displaying her most recent work.
Pakosta, who creates as much as ten large-format paintings every year, looks much younger than 79. And not only because of her bright red hair and her athletic figure. It’s her alert mind and her bright eyes that radiate youthfulness. She is full of ideas for new paintings and the current exhibition shows that Pakosta continuously develops her skills further and enjoys experimenting.
The gallery presents some of her “Tricolored Paintings”: large-format canvases consisting of three-coloured beams arranged in a grid-like structure - characterized by contrasting and intensive colours as well as rigid lines. “I believe that with this pattern I can best express our time and how I see it”, Pakosta said. She created these paintings after the fall of the Iron Curtain and in commemoration of the heaps of rubble in Vienna during World War II.
Pakosta always focussed on facial expresions and gestures – also in her constructivist paintings: “It’s all about emotions such as the feeling of being locked up or pushed back – “behind bars”. But it’s also about networks, being interlinked in this digital era. And my memories about the war are very vivid”, the artist said. In the exhibition one now also sees paintings in four colours and – another novelty in her work – with curved beams. Moreover, small-format drawings in subdued colours created as a continuation of the principle of her large beam-paintings are displayed.
Prior to her constructivist phase, Pakosta was known for her large portraits depicting politicians and museum directors. She developed these works (i.e. Walter Koschatzky, Alfred Hrdlicka, Friedrich Heer and Helmut Zilk) based on Franz Xaver Messerschmidt’s “Character Heads”. All of her portraits depicted men. “Women, mainly feminists, often thought I wanted to heroize men. On the contrary! I added something caricature-like. They appear threatening and at the same time also slightly ridiculous. And that’s exactly the way it was.”
The “mask” – Pakosta refers to this as a strategically conscious facial expression – of politicians, directors or artists was what interested her most. Likeness was not as important. And that’s also why she had no problem when they expressed their desire to have their portrait embellished. “Some men asked me to add more hair, so would look nicer. I fulfilled their wish and made them look better than they actually were. And it’s this ideal picture that makes the portraits slightly ridiculous.” She always enjoyed painting men more than women - it was easier for her. “Unless he had a beard – I never enjoyed painting so much hair”.
Pakosta’s subtle acid wit and humour come to light with these remarks. Her non-conformism can be sensed in her current work. Similar to the large-format portraits and their relentless impression it is hard to escape the engaging presence of her new pictures. There is still much to expect from the artist who is not thinking of stopping to work for a long time to come – “Retirement? Honestly, I don’t know what that’s supposed to be.”
Artmark Galerie Wien
1010 Vienna, Singerstraße 17
Tel: +43 (0)1 5129880
Fax: +43 (0)1 51298804
email: wien@artmark.at
www.artmark.at
Opening hours: Tue - Fri 12:00 - 18:00, Sat 11:00 - 14:00 hours
Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville
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