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Indepth Arts News:
"Uncommon Denominator: New Art from Vienna"
2002-05-25 until 2003-03-15
MASS MoCA
North Adams, MA,
USA United States of America
Perhaps no city in Europe today rivals Vienna
for the vibrancy and complexity of its emerging arts scene. Vienna is the
home of a lively, provocative group of artists who are surprisingly little
known in the United States, but whose engaging and challenging works recall
the city's historic role as home to some of the finest art and artists of
the last century - and who continue the Viennese tradition of challenging
established artistic forms with wit, craft, and innuendo.
In 2002, MASS
MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) is spotlighting these
artists with a major exhibition, Uncommon Denominator: New Art from Vienna
which presents more than 70 works by 14 individuals and one group in a range
of media such as painting, sculpture, and performance art. The exhibition,
which will fill virtually all of the museum's main gallery building, will be
on view from May 25, 2002, through March 2003.
Lush paintings and drawings, taut psychological explorations, and witty
conceptual works in this exhibition amplify and challenge historic Viennese
art forms. The artists in Uncommon Denominator are "Viennese" in the
broadest sense: several came originally from eastern Europe, from cities
that were once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and some see Vienna as a
temporary home. The political transformations in Europe over the last two
decades have moved Vienna from the geographic fringe of Western Europe (east
of Prague, it was the easternmost Western capital) to the center of a united
Europe, as it was at the beginning of the 20th century. The style and
occasionally the political content of this work point to Vienna's pivotal
position between east and west.
Uncommon Denominator presents recent work under three broad categories,
though most of these artists slide fluidly among them. The exhibition
concentrates on work created in the last five years, drawing from artists
who vary in age, and including those whose reputations are only just
emerging alongside others who have already achieved wider notoriety
throughout Europe. Furthermore, rather than pursuing a broad strategy of
inclusion, Uncommon Denominator presents more works - 70 - by fewer artists.
The categories include:
The Tradition of Painting
At a time when painting struggles to hold its critical ground on the
international scene, rich, beautiful canvases are painted in refreshingly
large numbers in Vienna and are linked through the academy to a century-old
tradition of painting and draftsmanship. In Herbert Brandl's expansive,
color-saturated canvases, the suggestion of a landscape hovering just out of
reach, Turner lurks, but so does Kokoschka. Generous, sensual, intelligent
painting of this quality comes as a shock. Barabara Eichorn distills the
tortured line and psychic fervor of Egon Schiele's century-old figures; her
large, spare figure drawings are equally intense, but cooler, more interior
and restrained. Otto Zitko expands line and gesture to architectural scale
with large, dynamic canvasses that deconstruct space and record movement.
Adriana Czernin, born in Sofia, Bulgaria, reworks Gustav Klimt's legacy in
her beautiful, disturbing drawings and videos, while Johanna Kandl tempers
the political questions posed in her paintings with deft drawing and
striking use of color. In every case, the craftsmanship and assertive beauty
of these works testifies to the strong tradition of the art academies in
Vienna. An emphasis on the making of paintings and drawings that appeal to
the eye never became anachronistic in this city.
Body/Performance
The legacy of Actionism can be clearly seen in Vienna in the enduring
fascination with performance and the body - both that of the artist and that
of the viewer. Actionism, the 1960s art movement which responded to the
occupation and devastation of Vienna during the World Wars, focused on
"actions" (similar to New York's "happenings") that were notorious for their
often quite brutal and blood-infused content. Franz West's Fitting Pieces
made of gesso require that the viewer contort his body to experience the
work. (West's longstanding emphasis on collaboration with other artists is
another peculiarly Viennese trait.) Erwin Wurm has used his own body as
sculptural material, as documented in the photographs Me and Me Fat, and has
ascribed human characteristics to an actual car, the fleshy pink Fat Car.
Hans Schabus is the only performer in his videos, whether digging a hole in
the forests of Corinthia or being pursued by his doppelganger as he works in
his studio.
Design as Concept
Throughout the 20th century design has had pride of place in Viennese art,
and the centrality of design can be clearly seen in the conceptual work of
the 1990s and beyond. Heimo Zoberning, a leading conceptual artist, makes
artworks that slide into architecture and exhibition design. Peter Kogler
and Walter Obholzer have pushed their separate investigations of pattern and
decoration into strikingly contrasting positions. Lois Weinberger finds apt
metaphors for social conditions in garden design. The political bent of
Weinberger's project can be found also in Florian Pumhösl's video
installations, which query the role of colonialist architecture in Africa.
Constanze Ruhm shares Pumhösl's interest in architecture, but for her this
interest arises from film theory. Czech-born Svetlana Heger and
Bulgarian-born Plamen Dejanov work with Western luxury consumer products,
with an ironic wide-eyed enthusiasm only Eastern Europeans could bring to
the subject.
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