fokus sammlung 08. ABSTRAKT. material+struktur

The latest exhibition is the eighth project in the ‘focus collection’ series, which was launched in 2010. After dealing with the human image, still lifes, and the representation of landscapes and animals, which are classical themes of painting, the 2020 exhibition ‘geometry + concept’ meant a change in focus towards abstract art. The interest of the latest project, ‘material + structure’, is in the liberation of colour, in its evolution from a local colour describing the subject, to an autonomous means and malleable material, as well as in its substitution and unmaking; and, alongside this, in the path from panel painting to the object, from the plane into space, which took place in Modernist and post-war avant-garde art via the material picture and colour painting – from Constructivism, Concrete Art and Colour Field Painting to Minimal Art. The artists featured in our collection exhibition build on the results of these processes; some even directly, such as Hans Bischoffshausen, Otto Piene, and Bernard Aubertin, who worked in the immediate sphere of ZERO. Valentin Oman incorporated the concepts of Tachism and Informel, while Sepp Schmölzer and Cornelius Kolig transferred the material experiments to the field of sculpture. Ferdinand Penker combined elements of American Post-Pictorial Abstraction with Minimalist aspects. The younger generations draw on the above: Heinz and Roswitha Aichernig, Johannes Domenig, Isabella Hollauf, Michael Kos, Renate Krammer, Marlies Liekfeld-Rapetti, Claus Prokop, Arnulf Rainer, Peter Sandbichler, Rudi Stanzel, or Veronika Suschnig create rhythm and structure on the material picture. Manfred Bockelmann, Angelika Kaufmann, Hubert Lobnig, Arno Popotnig, or Drago Julius Prelog construct them on paper and canvas in pictorial or graphic ways. Johann Feilacher, Sibylle von Halem, Katharina Heinrich, Gerhild Tschachler-Nagy, Herbert Unterberger, and Rainer Wulz transfer these principles to sculpture. Jakob Gasteiger, Michael Kravagna, Manfred Mörth, Thomas Reinhold, Rudolfine P. Rossmann, and Klaus-Dieter Zimmer experiment with the colour substance on the rectangle of the painting to push its qualities. Karl Hikade employs collage. Uwe Bressnik and Terese Kasalicky continue these artistic reflections with plastic foils and dyed strings.