translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
280714: Landesgalerie für zeitgenössische Kunst: Hermann J. Painitz – Selbstverständlich
Landesgalerie für zeitgenössische Kunst
Hermann J. Painitz – Selbstverständlich
29.03.2014 – 24.08.2014
Art, Naturally
By Daniela Gregori
On the 2nd of April 1972, a single bus passed by at the corner of Nussdorferstrasse/ Fuchstalergasse in Vienna's 9th District between 12.30 and 12.50. Traffic was busy. Sixteen trams were counted in those 20 minutes, 266 cars, 26 female and 29 male pedestrians as well as only 6 motorbikes, bicycles were less frequent in those days. Or was it contingent upon the weather? Nothing of particular importance happened at that precise spot but if one follows the bold, snaking lines of red and blue spots, black circles and their possible combinations, one has, perhaps, a picture of the traffic situation during those 20 minutes of that Easter Monday.
"How does the artist arrive at art?" asks Hermann J. Painitz in order to answer his own question "Just briefly and blithely by using his perception and reacting to his surroundings". Painitz ensures perception, orders the symbols and puts all information into a distinct pictorial language, and that for almost 50 years. He's certainly not an unknown with all his doings, or is he? For the first time, Zeitkunst Niederösterreich, presents an encompassing retrospective of the artist born 1938 and the former President of the Vienna Secession (1977-83), in the Shedhalle St. Pölten. And ultimately, one is very impressed by the plethora and consequence of these oeuvres and the diversity portrayed in them.
The Brotalphabet" (Bread Alphabet) (1975) also functions in a similar self- referencing way. Every letter on the wall matches a different type of bread. Compare the four breads on the table in front with the graphic characters and you again have the term "bread".
Of course every sensualization of the abstract, using a certain coding, reminds of the pictograms by Otto Neurath and Gerd Arntz, with whom Painitz was unfamiliar at the beginning of his activity. In a foreword to the 1975 catalogue, he admitted that the knowledge that these thoughts were already there relieved him to a certain extent, he was fascinated by Neutath's "optical work" as a basis on which one could build. In another part of the beautifully constructed exhibition catalogue, the artist is cited as saying, "The picture is a wall chart for irrevocable ORDER".
Landesgalerie für zeitgenössische Kunst
3100 St.Pölten, Culture District 5
Tel: +43-2742 90 80 90
E-mail: office@zeitkunstnoe.at
http://www.zeitkunstnoe.at/
Opening hours: Tue – Sun 9 - 17 hours
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280714
Landesgalerie für zeitgenössische Kunst
3100 St.Pölten, Kulturbezirk 5
Tel: +43-2742 90 80 90
Email: office@zeitkunstnoe.at
http://www.zeitkunstnoe.at/
Öffnungszeiten: Di – So 9 - 17 h
Landesgalerie für zeitgenössische Kunst
3100 St.Pölten, Kulturbezirk 5
Tel: +43-2742 90 80 90
Email: office@zeitkunstnoe.at
http://www.zeitkunstnoe.at/
Öffnungszeiten: Di – So 9 - 17 h