FROM CARINTHIA

The Kärntner Kulturstiftung (KKS) promotes and connects art and culture from Carinthia and presents an exhibition in the Factory with contemporary artists from Carinthia. Based on selected works by nine nationally and internationally recognized artists, their origin from the south of Austria is highlighted. FROM CARINTHIA shows representative main works from different creative phases by Maria Lassnig, Kiki Kogelnik, Meina Schellander, Hans Staudacher, Bruno Gironcoli, Hans Bischoffshausen, Peter Krawagna, Valentin Oman and Wolfgang Hollegha. The loans for the exhibition come from the collections of the Land Carinthia, the STRABAG ART Collection and the Liaunig Collection and include painting, graphics, sculpture and object art between 1960 and 2025.

"Carinthian artists have repeatedly succeeded in reaching the forefront of art development. While in the first half of the last century it was primarily the painters from Nötsch, numerous Carinthian artists also emerged in the second half and were able to establish themselves internationally.

Immediately after the Second World War, the activities of individuals were crucial in initiating the new beginning of art in Austria and connecting to global standards. Among them was Maria Lassnig, who, after a trip to Paris with Arnulf Rainer in 1951, organized the first exhibition of informal art in Austria at the Klagenfurter Künstlerhaus, Hans Staudacher, who, after numerous stays in Paris, became an ambassador of lyrical Informel, and Hans Bischoffshausen, who lived in Paris from 1959 to 1971 and, as a member of the ZERO-Avantgarde group, also achieved international recognition.

Wolfgang Hollegha – like Maria Lassnig and Kiki Kogelnik, to be counted among the circle of the Viennese Galerie St. Stephan, which gathered the most progressive abstract artists from 1954 onwards – was already presented with the abstract expressionists in New York in 1958.

After a slow consolidation and general opening in the 1950s, many artists went abroad – Lassnig, for example, to Paris in 1961 and New York in 1967, where Kogelnik had lived since 1961 and established herself as the only Austrian Pop Art artist. For both, going abroad led to worldwide success.

Many artists of the second post-war generation already studied abroad, Peter Krawagna for example in Paris. Valentin Oman is also strongly influenced by French painting. Bruno Gironcoli also oriented himself in Paris at the beginning of the 1960s and subsequently developed a unique sculptural oeuvre with which he achieved international success. Meina Schellander, with her incomparable sculptural work, holds an undisputed position that holds out hope for a transnational breakthrough." (Text: Christine Wetzlinger-Grundnig)

Curated by Christine Wetzlinger-Grundnig (Director Museum Moderner Kunst Kärnten MMKK) and Ulli Sturm (Kärntner Kulturstiftung KKS/Kunstbüro)