ART AT EPWorks of Art from Austria

© European Union, 2018

This publication was produced in Luxembourg for information purposes on the occasion of the exhibition of Austrian works of art from the European Parliament’s art collection and art collections in Austria, organised within the framework of the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, with the aim of providing an educational reference about the background and artistic legacy of the artists whose works are displayed, and of preserving and promoting their contribution to Europe’s cultural heritage.

This publication is intended strictly for non-commercial use within the premises of the European Parliament. Unauthorised use, reproduction or distribution of this publication’s contents is strictly forbidden. Further use of certain images beyond the purposes intended herein may be limited by the copyright of the artists or other third parties. The European Parliament disclaims all liability which may arise in relation to unauthorised use.

Art space Austria

Antonio TajaniPresident of the European Parliament

PREFACE

Austria is at the heart of Europe and the European Union, in many more ways than geography. Gustav Klimt and Johann Strauss and many other great Austrians are protagonists of a shared European cultural heritage, transmitted with their peers across borders of state, language and nationality, to shape a European identity which we now cherish and share within a family of 28 Member States.

Austria has been a catalyst of this European identity, with its role at a crossroad of Germanic, Romanic and Slavic cultures, making it a factor for connection and intermediation.

I am convinced that the Austrian pre-disposition for intermediation will translate into an aptitude for leadership in view of its responsibility to take the Presidency of the Council in hand as from 1 July. Austria is well prepared, not only as an active Council delegation, but also from its past two presidencies. The challenges ahead are significant as are the expectations, given that the Austrian Presidency will come at the most important period where the Union’s legislature is meant to deliver on all its promises before the European Parliament elections in May 2019.

Most of our challenges today require us to think outside the box. We need to be creative for politics to prevail over bureaucracy. It is therefore particularly appropriate to turn our looks to art to inspire politics, and to hold an exhibition at the start of the Austrian Presidency at the European Parliament.

This exhibition brings together Austrian artworks from the European Parliament’s own collection with a collection of works from the Austrian Federal Government. These works take us on a voyage of perspectives. Starting from the untitled piece by the celebrated media and object artist Eva Schlegel, provoking us with her pictorial realization between photographic objectivity and painterly blurriness. Featured also from the European Parliament collection we can appreciate the pictorial black-white artwork from Franz Graf, the red energy piece of Ona B., the blurred flirt of Brussels based artist and wine trader Kurt Ryslavy, a “studio drawing” by Linde Waber and a sacral picture from Kurt Welther, a representative of the School of Fantastic Realism.

The collection of the Austrian Federal Government enriches our experience through remarkable contemporary artworks including ink drawings from Anemona Crisan and Ulrike Lienbacher, expressive paintings from Aurelia Gratzer, Mirjam Moss, Richard Jurtitsch, Barbara Mungenast and Florentina Pakosta, “sculpural” art from Luisa Kasalicky and Herwig Turk as well as an untitled drawing by Georg Frauenschuh and a C-print created by Dorothee Golz.

Some of the works presented here challenge our established reference frames by blurring realities and conceptualising space hence provoking our senses and our existing presumptions. Challenging the status quo is imperative also in European politics where we need to work to change Europe for the better, making it work for all of our citizens.

This exhibition makes therefore for an excellent prelude to the launch of the Austrian Presidency, which, I trust, will be a factor for dynamism in achieving results, in close collaboration with the European Parliament, for a Europe which delivers, getting closer to its citizens. I wish you a stimulating visit.

Antonio TajaniPresident of the European Parliament

Catherine BearderQuaestor responsible for the artworks in the European Parliament

PREFACE

I extend my warmest welcome to this, the temporary exhibition of Austrian artworks from the European Parliament’s Art Collection, marking the next rotation of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. As Austria takes over the mantel of the Presidency from Bulgaria, we are delighted to showcase works of art from such an historic nation steeped in culture, made all the more relevant during this European Year of Cultural Heritage.

The art collection of the European Parliament started in 1980 under the initiative of the President of the first directly elected Parliament, Simone Veil, with the aim of supporting the European contemporary art scene and promoting cultural creativity and diversity within the union and today comprises over 600 paintings, sculptures and other artworks from all EU Member States.

Austria has the privilege of being able to boast a wealth of prominent artistic and creative figures throughout its history, paving new ways of thinking and expression now known across the world. The pieces of art on display today are the combination of selected Austrian artworks from the European Parliament’s collection as well as contributions from the collection of the Austrian Federal Government. They capture the essence of expressionism and culture in Austria via contemporary styles and demonstrate the willingness to question conventional thinking, means of emotional expression and social values. The European Parliament art collection is truly enhanced because of Austrian contributions by artists such as Ona B., Kurt Welther and Kurt Ryslavy, amongst others.

I sincerely hope you enjoy this inspiring exhibition.

Catherine BearderQuaestor responsible for the artworks in the European Parliament

PREFACEGernot BlümelFederal Minister for the EU, the Arts, Culture and the Media

An impressive aspect of the European Parliament’s art collection is its artistic diversity. It comprises contemporary works by artists from all the Member States of the European Union. Traditionally, works of art from whichever country currently holds the Presidency are exhibited for the appropriate six months.

The European Parliament therefore invites the country that holds the Presidency to make works available from its own collections to expand the range of works exhibited.

Austria was delighted to accept this invitation, and, in the exhibition ‘Art space Austria’, is displaying works from the Federal Government’s art collection, the ‘Artothek des Bundes’, whose staff, since 1948, have managed works purchased by the State in order to support the arts. The Federal Government’s collection now comprises around 37 000 works from all areas of the fine arts and, taken as whole, documents Austrian art in an exemplary fashion.

The focus of the small, but representative, selection of contemporary works is on the works of young Austrian artists, who serve as a kind of seismograph for developments in our society and whose works deal with topical issues and thus encourage a fascinating debate. At the same time, the 21 artists whose works have been selected have adopted a wide range of approaches and thus provide an overview of the manifold modes of artistic expression open to them.

Austria not only has a rich cultural heritage: the exhibition ‘Art space Austria’ will introduce visitors to the multifaceted contemporary Austrian art scene.

By presenting art created both by renowned artists and by talented young people, the exhibition at the European Parliament will therefore provide a unique opportunity for people to familiarise themselves with a wide range of visions and gain an impression of contemporary techniques and styles. Addressing the present-day art discourse, ‘Art space Austria’ will help to present Austria as a forward-looking country with a vibrant art scene and to place that scene in its international context.

I wish the exhibition and the artists who are represented in it the success that they deserve, and I proffer my thanks to the European Parliament for taking the initiative to arrange this fruitful cooperation.

Gernot Blümel Federal Minister for the EU, the Arts, Culture and the Media

INTRODUCTIONART SPACE AUSTRIA

Austrian art and culture are so rich in history, with an abundance of eminent names through the ages, that it is difficult to make a selection for this brief overview. In music, Mozart, Haydn, Bruckner and Mahler are composers who immediately spring to mind, as do the famous Strauss waltzes. Literature is represented by writers of the calibre of Grillparzer, Zweig, Schnitzler, Bernhard, Bachmann and many more. Austrian architecture has produced major monuments in every era, and many now form part of the UNESCO world cultural heritage. And Viennese coffee-house culture, the wine taverns (Heurige) and Austria’s diverse cuisine must of course be mentioned too!

Lying as it does in central Europe, Austria acts, not just geographically, but also in terms of cultural history, as a connecting link between cultural influences and has consistently lived in symbiosis, especially with neighbouring countries. Since the Romanesque period it has moved through the eras that have principally shaped the Western world, giving varied forms of expression to their characteristic styles. Two examples of outstanding significance are a portrait of Duke Rudolf IV, the first half-frontal portrait in the West, produced in 1365, and a creative marriage of architecture from 1690 on that found expression in a regional Baroque style. One factor to have left its mark on Austrian culture to this day was the 600-year rule of the Habsburg dynasty. A variety of influences from neighbouring countries, including Hungary and the present-day Czech Republic, have found their way into Austrian culture through wide-ranging cultural exchange.

Somewhere around 1900 Vienna became the centre of Art Nouveau. Painting reached a new zenith, and the Vienna Secession, an association of visual artists, also came into being. One of its co-founders was Gustav Klimt, whose painting style blazed a trail for the development of Vienna Modernism. The Austrian form of Expressionism can be seen in works by mavericks such as Egon Schiele or Oskar Kokoschka. Raoul Hausmann is an internationally known representative of Dadaism. Afterwards it was not until the second half of the 20th century that defining impulses in painting again arose in Austria. The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, an artistic movement close to surrealism, has gained wide currency. The painting style is modelled on old masters, but picture content often ranges from the fantastic and unreal to shockingly apocalyptic representations.

In the 1960s, Viennese Actionism developed into the foremost contribution to the Austrian art of the day. It emerged on a borderline between theatre and painting, having been inspired by the American happening and Fluxus movement; its prime material is the human body. Through its aggressive confrontations and breaking of taboos it criticises the consumer society and provokes state and church authorities. The public responded with irritation to this radicalism, which sometimes displays self-destructive features. Equally controversial is the internationally known artist Gottfried Helnwein, who, together with Arnulf Rainer, represents contemporary Austrian art. In addition to coming to terms with National Socialism, the underlying theme of his works is the suffering caused by the physical and emotional violence that humans inflict on others. Children are a central motif in his works, but he does not make them look as cute as we generally see them: in his hyperrealistic representations they are disfigured or maimed.

Friedensreich Hundertwasser, also known as Friedrich Stowasser (1928-2000), was an internationally famous artistic visionary and philosopher. His architectural works and paintings follow the forms and harmony of nature, taking a stand against artificial man-made spaces. He gave pride of place to people, those who freely chose to live in the houses that he had designed, as opposed to architects to whom, in matters of design, house occupants had to defer. Hundertwasser houses were built in various parts of the world and it is not just in Vienna that they catch the eye.

This exhibition brings together selected Austrian artworks from the European Parliament’s collection and contributions from the collection of the Austrian Federal Government, which has set itself the key task of promoting contemporary art in all spheres.

DG CommunicationEvents and Exhibitions Unit

Art Collection of the European Parliament

Ona B.Adolf FROHNER

Franz GRAF Martha JUNGWIRTH

Brigitte KOWANZKurt RYSLAVYEva SCHLEGELLinde WABERKurt WELTHERFlorian WÜRTZ

Ona B. (1957)Zero Space

1997Acrylic on canvas200 x 180 cm Art collection of the European Parliament

Ona B., the assumed name of Susanne Kibler, contains a word which in several languages d e n o t e s t h e f e m i n i n e . Fe m i n i n i t y a n d sensuality are brought to mind by the central role of the colour red in Ona B.’s works. For her red has altogether positive associations, with motivation, strength, joy, and well-being. Her work encompasses a variety of media, including paintings, installations, performance, photography, and music too. It

is full of metaphors and symbols, Ona B. takes an interest in transcendental elements such as meta-communication, meditation, dreams, and Zen, while also tackling socio-political issues. In her pictorial world art is mingled with life. Fear of the unknown and a longing for infinity are her driving force. She studied with Alfred Frohner, another artist who has a work in the European Parliament collection, and was a member of ‘Die Damen’, a group of women artists.

“Red represents energy, the life-flow. All the important things in life are red: blood, fire, the sun.”

Adolf FROHNER (1934-2007)Odysseus searching

1998Oil on canvas130 x 100 cm Art collection of the European Parliament

Despite originally being rejected by the Academy of Fine Arts – supposedly because he had no aptitude – Adolf Frohner came to be one of Austria’s foremost abstract painters and graphic artists. In the 1960s he was a co-founder of Viennese Actionism, artistic agitators of their day, who were criticised for their brutal pictures showing violence to and against women. Inspired at first by Cézanne and Picasso, Frohner concentrated on exploring the human body in painting and drawing. In so doing he discovered the aesthetics of the ugly. His frequently plump female figures are a satirical critique of our consumer culture. Far from being misogynistic, they symbolically illustrate how women are oppressed in our consumer society through their visual representation. This painting depicts a male figure and is linked to Frohner’s analysis of bodily rituals.

“Look, I’m not inventing anything new.”

Franz GRAF (1954)Mea lux amicae tenebrae

1994Pencil on paper between glass6 parts – 84 x 84 cm overallArt collection of the European Parliament

As can be seen from this work from the European Parliament’s art collection, Franz Graf follows trails and points the way. His basic concept has to do with connecting and overlapping of different media and materials. Abstract, ornamental, and figurative drawings, literary finds or his own letters and words, and found objects or concrete photographic representations of reality blend into a complex, ambiguous pictorial language. In his pictorial world, dominated by black and white, he maps out what is human in feelings, memory, and the present. Graf’s work bears the clear stamp of his lifestyle. He is a member of the Vienna Secession Association of Visual Artists and has often collaborated with, and in the process drawn fresh inspiration from, other artists – for example Brigitte Kowanz, who also has a work in the European Parliament collection.

“I need some openness. I can’t work within fixed bounds.”

Martha JUNGWIRTH (1940)The belt of Omphale

1996Watercolour on paper120 x 150 cm Art collection of the European Parliament

The work of the Viennese artist Martha Jungwirth consists mainly of watercolours and paintings. Her pictures are virtuoso experiments in colour that erase the boundaries between abstraction and concreteness. In the 1960s she was the only female member of the ‘Wirklichkeiten’ (Realities) group, but artistically has always gone her own way. She started with self-portraits, but her later

‘Indesit’ series featured domestic appliances floating over the picture surface. In the 1980s her pictures became more abstract and emotional. Colour detaches itself from the object to become purely expressive, handmade paper being the background of choice. A combination of intuitive spontaneity and mastery of aesthetic principles is what sets her work apart.

“I describe works as well done when thinking can largely be switched off while painting and the brush starts, so to speak, to take on a life of its own.”

Brigitte KOWANZ (1957)Lights shine

1997Acrylic, steel, wood, and fluorescent lamps180 x 120 cmArt collection of the European Parliament

Light, language, and mirrors are the basic elements of Brigitte Kowanz’s work. At the very beginning of her artistic career, when she collaborated with Franz Graf, another artist to be represented in the European Parliament collection, she used luminous and fluorescent pigments in her canvas and paper pictures. Later Kowanz developed light objects, in which light is not just the material, but the central theme. The

“Light is what you see.”

interrelation of light and space is heightened by means of mirrors purposely placed at given points in the objects and installations. There are no longer any dividing-lines between real space and its reflection flooded with light. Simple combinations of dots and dashes, which she uses in her works, become language codes, and light, a medium of information and recognition.

Kurt RYSLAVY (1961)Flirt

1998Oil on canvas in a transparent Plexiglas sleeve with a screen printed viewing surface106 x 81 x 3 cm Art collection of the European Parliament

Kurt Ryslavy describes himself as a dabbler in art and since 1987 has traded in Austrian wines in Brussels. Ironic though that may sound, it does match his artistic approach, with his critical probing into values in society regarding the working conditions of creative artists, the marketing of art, and the art market in general. He covers a wide multimedia field comprising sculptures, pictures and drawings, photographs, installations, performances, posters, catalogues, and videos. Furthermore, writing is one of his main means of expression. His work is influenced by the Dada movement, Fluxus, and Viennese Actionism. He constantly calls into question existing art concepts and traditional views of art, using provocation and mockery. He plays with the rules of the art system in subjective actionism.

“What should be clear, at any rate, is that the (aesthetic) state of our surroundings is not simply a given. On the contrary, we as beholders can help to determine it. Unmentionables have their own special charm.”

Eva Schlegel’s work encompasses photographs, objects and installations, and works realised directly in the exhibition area. In her works she focuses on the interaction between the object and the perception thereof. Blurring is a key creative tool which she uses in order to examine what information is preserved and what is hidden. The sources are photographs and texts which she

processes by special techniques. Works on lead or glass and the use of mirrors or varnish contribute to the disorienting effect. The simultaneous revelation and concealment of pictorial content calls the legitimacy of the picture into question. Unlimited immaterial space, as can be seen in this picture from the European Parliament’s collection, add to the viewer’s sense of disorientation.

“In my work I address myself a great deal to blurriness. What happens when the primary information content is missing. What do I see then?”

1998Oil and varnish on a chalk ground88 x 120 cm Art collection of the European Parliament

Eva SCHLEGEL (1960)o.T.

Driven by her immense creative power, Linde Waber has produced a substantial body of work as a graphic artist and painter. In her woodcuts, large-size ink drawings, and canvases the central themes are her domestic environment and impressions that she has gained on her numerous international trips. In addition, she is often galvanised into action by

“Other people’s order, and the order of their surroundings, are starting to interest me. I draw in other artists’ studios and try to understand.”

1998Mixed media on paper190 x 192 cm Art collection of the European Parliament

Linde WABER (1940)Atelier

literature. One of her rules is to produce ‘daily drawings’, her version of a diary in which to record experiences in pictorial form. This picture is part of her ‘Atelierzeichnungen’ (Studio drawings), in which she records character traits of artists in their working environment. Besides large-scale works, this has resulted in many friendships.

1998Oil on canvas160 x 102.5 cm Art collection of the European Parliament

Kurt Welther first trained as a textile pattern designer before becoming a master-class student of Anton Lehmden, a representative of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism. Patterns and ornaments are constants of his pictures. Employing his distinctive method, he overlays the image of the world as he sees it with complementary patterns. These are

“The picture is still; you have to switch off for it and be empty. You mustn’t want anything when you look at a picture. You have to give it time, and then it comes alive. There’s something almost meditative about this.”

Kurt WELTHER (1957)Sacral picture

boldly applied with a paint-roller on top of the pictorial content already there. This is thus almost ‘sealed’ and made less accessible to the viewer’s eye. The pictorial content has to be processed through this alienating filter, which is why – paradoxically – it is brought into a shorter range of perception and hence acquires new intensity.

“disguise and deceive”

Florian WÜRTZ (1971)O.T from the series ‘j’aime pas la techno’

This diptych belongs to a series dating back to the time when Florian Würtz made music a focal point in his artistic work. For him and many other artists, for example Rockenschaub or Pommassi, the techno, rave, club, and underground era was an exciting time. As part of that subculture, not only was this sound new and rebellious, but it was

1995Mixed media on canvas2 parts, 25 x 17 cm each Art collection of the European Parliament

also interesting for the purposes of exchange or interplay with visual art.In recent years Florian Würtz has been concentrating on painting, based on the principle of disguising and deceiving. This has translated into ‘camouflage’ pictures, inspired by industry, the army, and product design.

Art Collection of Austria

Anemona CRISAN Georg FRAUENSCHUH

Dorothee GOLZ Aurelia GRATZER

Richard JURTITSCHLuisa KASALICKY

Ulrike LIENBACHERMirjam MOSS

Barbara MUNGENASTFlorentina PAKOSTA

Herwig TURK

‘An eddy, a disturbed water surface into which the last drop has fallen which will cause the container to overflow. The tension has been overcome, chaos prevails: what is going to happen?’

Both in Anemona Crisan’s works on paper and canvas and in her large installations, the contours by means of which she redefines space are the dominant element. Drawing as a medium has played a big part in her art throughout her career, as have the themes of space and the body. In her works on canvas and her drawings, as well

as her three-dimensional works, she is always concerned with this relationship between space and bodies, which she does not see as opposed to one another but rather as ‘merging into a plastic whole’, as Conny Cossa aptly wrote about the work in the monograph on the artist, ‘Die Anatomie des Raumes’, published in 2014.

2014Ink on cotton120.5 x 100 cm Artothek des Bundes, Austria

Anemona CRISAN (1980)Untitled

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2006Acrylic on paper150 x 121 cm Artothek des Bundes, Austria

‘The picture forms part of a one-off series depicting crystals and faeces. The motif provides the motivation to overcome precisely this.’

Georg FRAUENSCHUH (1979)Untitled (crystal – signed)

At first sight, the work appears to be a pencil drawing. However, upon closer inspection, fine brush strokes can be perceived. On the subject of Georg Frauenschuh’s motifs, Patricia Grzonka says: ‘The frame of reference for these [motifs] is to be found both outside and inside the picture itself: outside thanks to the origins of the picture (mechanised, standardised, digital images), inside thanks to cross-references within the picture and the ever present discourse with painting. Here, themes inherent in painting are addressed, themes concerned with the problem of originality and imitation, which, in the era of the internet, the question of images constantly seems to raise. Or the question of authorship, which is challenged by the copying of anonymous images.’ This work shows the mechanical dismantling of motifs, in this case of a crystal, and – as in a proof – the grey card on the left-hand edge of the picture with a reference to digitisation and standardisation.

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The starting point is always a face from an old painting. Dorothee Golz composes a photographic surround for it. The picture is created on a computer. The palette contains files of photographed skin, material, hair, etc. which is applied by a virtual paintbrush. In order for the face that was originally painted to look like a photograph, everything painted must be replaced with photographed details. The face and headgear of the Prada girl were derived from a portrait of a woman painted in 1465 by Petrus Christus, a portrait which bears

‘To me, art is a realm filled with possibilities. I merge things with one another which in external reality would never meet.’

2012C-print131.5 x 104.5 cm Artothek des Bundes, Austria

Dorothee GOLZ (1960)Prada girl

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the hallmarks of the way in which the Renaissance painter saw women. Combined with a body in modern clothing and a posture copied from fashion magazines – which are mostly arranged by men – a new image of woman is created and clichés are played with that are projected onto women in our society. This makes it clear that today we have a far wider range of possible women’s lives open to us than was the case 500 years ago. Women can design themselves, but always respond to society’s perceptions.

As a rule, the starting point for Aurelia Gratzer’s pic tures is photographs from real estate adver tisements, ‘poor- quality real estate advertisements’, as the artist stresses with a hint of irony. Her favoured model is neither a perfectly presented picture from an architecture magazine nor a self-made and therefore already personally filtered photo: it is a composite photograph which has been modified on a computer and possesses two or more vanishing points. The painting process begins here, often with the

spontaneous assignment of a title. A sketch follows, on paper or applying pastels directly to the canvas, after which the process continues with precise finishing of the surface. Aurelia Gratzer dwells on each individual element of the surface, while being entirely focused on the painting process itself. Wielding the paintbrush sometimes freely, sometimes with the aid of a ruler, she deliberately shows transitions and disparities so as in the end to leave us with more questions than answers.

‘When using photographs as a basis for my paintings, I try wherever possible to use them without any additional information: I am fascinated by the extent to which perception depends on such information and by what happens if it is not available.’

2002Acrylic resin dispersion on molino150 x 150 cm Artothek des Bundes, Austria

Aurelia GRATZER (1978)Room 1

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1996Mixed media on canvas170 x 150 cm Artothek des Bundes, Austria

A reflective and quotational attitude towards cultural history is apparent in the pictures when the artist paints objects, mostly from the applied arts, as if they represented some kind of code. The repertoire ranges from capitals from columns, or sarcophagi, dating from Antiquity to candelabras in Renaissance style or baroque chairs. Although they may seem to have been chosen at random, all of

them come from a culture and bear witness to our European cultural tradition. Many of the pictures contain two-dimensional ring-shaped forms, whose interior is structured with silhouettes of people and animals and floral motifs. Jurtitsch makes use of patterns from the Vienna of the Biedermeier period and links them to what is going on in the picture, like a trace from his own cultural history.

‘The circular form symbolises tradition and demonstrates how I like to meditate on history, on what is old and whose time is past. My artistic position is a decidedly anti-modernist one.’

Richard JURTITSCH (1953)Imaginary distances

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The theme is the idea of the Ex Libris, the symbol of a book owner, which is adorned with various autobiographical elements. The relief contains the letters Y and K, anagrammatic elements from the name Kasalicky, and hints of other letters, such as L, S, U and A. Further elements of the relief, a piece of firewood, stucco ornaments and components of sheet metal furniture are optically linked by a coat of brown paint, a pigment which produces a matt effect and communicates a feeling of the everyday.

2016Wall sculpture: Wood, filler, plaster, wax, metal, rubber, paint190 x 220 x 50 cmArtothek des Bundes, Austria

‘Systematic use of combined pictorial language opens up a wide range of opportunities to link fragments of the most diverse kinds which at first sight have nothing to do with one another. A prime concern here is to work towards a synthesis of abstraction, narration, symbolism and temporality.’

Luisa KASALICKY (1974)Ex Libris: YK

To quote Luisa Kasalicky’s own words, her work Ex Libris consists of ‘two letters of the alphabet carved in wood, which have been smoothed with a paint scraper and painted with water-soluble paint, so that they take on the appearance of the surface of a wall. The letters are accompanied by other, smaller, elements, whose forms oscillate between structural elements from functionalist architecture, decorative ornaments and shapes derived from nature’.

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‘In this large-scale drawing, I am seeking a conception of the social. In an abstract pictorial space which makes an emotional impact because it is so colourful, two figures stand in a mutual relationship which remains indeterminate. It is impossible to tell whether they are engaged in a common exercise or whether one is carrying the other in a gesture of solidarity.’

2015Ink on paper218 x 148 cm Artothek des Bundes, Austria

Ulrike LIENBACHER (1963)Untitled

The body viewed as a screen on which social phenomena are powerfully projected is one of the fundamental assumptions underlying Ulrike Lienbacher’s work, which comprises drawings, objects, installation-like arrangements, photographs and videos.Optimisation, improved performance, discipline and perfection are fetishes of a society in thrall to efficiency and competition.Lienbacher, whose drawings have always had a conceptual basis and who has become known for her own reduction, has applied strong colours to paper in her recent works. Her characteristic ink drawings are a constant feature of her œuvre, but now often include various coloured backgrounds, which she describes as emotional fields.

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Studying the virtual/abstract space in Mirjam Moss’s paintings, one feels that it is possible to transcend the subjective limits of the perception of perspective. By allowing ourselves to enter in our imaginations the artist’s spatial domain, we find ourselves in another, new, dimension of locality because of the change in our sense perception. In her paintings, which Mirjam Moss herself has been known to describe as ‘Poésie Concrète’, she has for many years

concerned herself with the phenomenology of spatial experience and how, in its diversity, that experience – in response to the fall of light and shadow – varies in a manner analogous to shifts of human mood. Various materials are combined in pictures, culminating in strong colour tones in the combination of surfaces. The use of perspective, space per se, and geometrical abstraction are in large measure responsible for the harmony of the works.

‘What you see is what you see.’

2003Acrylic, varnish, sand on canvas150 x 150 cm Artothek des Bundes, Austria

Mirjam MOSS (1971)Balance

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1999Acrylic on canvas230 x 190 cm Artothek des Bundes, Austria

What is special about Mungenast’s acrylic paintings is their haptic surface, which arises from the painting technique specially developed by the artist, which is also the only one that she uses: here, the technique replaces the brush-stroke and gives the picture a fine relief structure. Mungenast approaches paint in the same way as objects: that probably explains the high degree of irritation felt when studying her paintings, both those that can

be moved and those that are specific to a particular location. As colours contrast strongly and are not mixed together, this creates solid areas of colour which possess their own three-dimensionality. The abstract figures remain in flux, come into contact, drift apart or overlap and intermingle. In this floating state, it seems as if time and space lose their original significance and finite limits are abolished.

‘In my work, I try to exploit forms, motifs and debates from the history of art and from architecture and graphic design, and to combine them subtly into a reference network.’

Barbara MUNGENAST (1960)Untitled

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Florentina Pakosta, who was born in Vienna in 1933 and who gained a reputation in the 1970s as a graphic artist and drawer with self-portraits which paraphrased Franz Xaver Messerschmidt’s ‘character heads’ and with large-scale depictions of men, has focused on painting since the mid-1980s. She has taken as her themes anonymous gatherings of people and uniform goods landscapes which are influenced by the aesthetics of Pop Art and comics but which at the same time recall the horrific pictures from concentration camps. Around 1989,

2015Acrylic on canvas95 x 95 cm Artothek des Bundes, Austria

‘Cutting up beam structures and separating them produces interfaces, and hence the fourth colour in my palette of paints, which comprises a restricted range of hues. A new period of work, which I already envisaged years ago but had not yet undertaken, ensues.’

Florentina PAKOSTA (1933)Centre 2

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in response to the political upheavals associated with the disappearance of the Iron Curtain, a new phase began: She painted her ‘tricolour pictures’, using abstract pictorial language inspired by the reforming ideas of Russian Constructivism. Moved by the revolutionary atmosphere of that movement and its female representatives, Pakosta adopted a position opposed to figurative, expressive painting and in reaction against the mediatisation of society, which led her to aim at a ‘symbolism which stands for the freedom of new ideas’, to quote the artist.

Herwig Turk’s work ‘labscapes’ gives the impression of being a conceptual still life, and takes an ethnographical look at scientific instruments. By means of the focus on the representation of the materiality of the laboratory objects, a tension-filled statement is made about the processes by means of which knowledge is produced. The laboratory appears as a documentary location for real empirical research, a location whose details are shown with precision. The focus on individual

‘The view of the laboratory combines an analysis of the visible with a vision of technological landscapes.’

2011Print on canvas150 x 374 cm Artothek des Bundes, Austria

Herwig TURK (1964)labscape 05

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instruments gives the objects a sculptural quality. The still life presents the laboratory as a compressed version of the outside world by reconfiguring natural and social orders, whose relationships to one another are not always clear. In laboratory practice – as in the practice of art – objects are removed from their ‘natural’ environment and installed in a new context which is defined by social actors and in which meanings are renegotiated again and again.

REFERENCE

27803 Anemona Crisanwww.anemonacrisan.at/Accessed 17.04.2018http://www.anemonacrisan.at/presse.htmlAccessed 17.04.2018

26830 FrauenschuhPatricia Grzonka, ‘Malschule Selbstbeobachtung Georg Frauenschuh’, in: Jenseits der armen Natur, Verlag Bibliothek der Provinz, 2015, p. 53

27720 GolzDorothee Golz

26297 Aurelia Gratzerhttps://www.aureliagratzer.com/ Accessed 16.04.2018Text by Andreas Hoffer supplied by the artist

24113 Richard Jurtitschhttp://jurtitsch.at/texts/zu-den-gemaelden-aus-den-jahren-1995-1997/Accessed 17.04.2018

28184 KasalickyText by Zdenek Felix supplied by the artist

28023 LienbacherExtract from press release supplied by the artist on the exhibition ‘optimal’ by Ulrike Lienbacher at Galerie Krinzinger, 2015

26669 MossText supplied by Rudolf Riedler (the artist’s father)

25556 MungenastText by Susanne Neuburger supplied by Galerie Senn

27935 PakostaText by Alexandra Schantl supplied by the artist

27834 TurkText by Ingeborg Reichle supplied by the artist‘The Art of Making Science’ Ingeborg Reichle, Berlin 2007

Organised by the European Parliament in cooperation with the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Curated by the Events and Exhibitions Unit, DG COMM

For more information please contact: art@ep.europa.eu