Exhibitions 2024

Main exhibition

BLIND DATE - The Maximilian and Agathe Weishaupt Collection in dialogue with the Liaunig Collection

Sun 28 April-Sun 31 October 2024 

In the main exhibition ‘BLIND DATE - The Maximilian and Agathe Weishaupt Collection in dialogue with the Liaunig Collection’, curators Alexandra Schantl and Franziska Straubinger present geometric-constructivist art in its diverse, transnational and cross-generational forms.

In the exhibition, works from the Liaunig Collection meet works from the Munich collection of Maximilian and Agathe Weishaupt. The couple of the same name focussed their collection on art after 1945, and while they initially mainly collected concrete-constructivist positions, this view has broadened over the years, so that the collection now also includes a wide range of non-objective contemporary art from Germany and abroad.

The selection of works was based on the largest overlap between the two collections according to thematic aspects, which have always represented central issues of abstract art, namely colour, form, light, space and material and their multifaceted interactions.

Works by the following artists are on display:

Marc Adrian (1930–2008), Josef Albers (1888–1976), Josef Bauer (1934–2022), Erwin Bechtold (1925–2022), Hans Bischoffshausen (1927–1987), Arturo Bonfanti (1905–1978), Bob Bonies (*1937), Hellmut Bruch (*1936), John Carter (*1942), Ha Chong-Hyun (*1935), Josef Danner (1955–2020), Walter Dexel (1890–1973), Inge Dick (*1941), Ulrich Erben (*1940), Wolfgang Ernst (*1942), Adolf Fleischmann (1892–1968), Andreas Fogarasi (*1977), Christoph Freimann (*1940), Jürgen Freund (1949–2007), Günter Fruhtrunk (1923–1982), Jakob Gasteiger (*1953), Tibor Gáyor (1929–2023), Rupprecht Geiger (1908–2009), Ernst Geitlinger (1895–1972), Roland Goeschl (1932–2016), Dorothee Golz (*1960), Gerhard von Graevenitz (1934–1983), Jon Groom (*1953), Peter Halley (*1953), Julia Haugeneder (*1987), Erwin Heerich (1922–2004), Karl Hikade (*1942), Barbara Höller (*1959), Raimer Jochims (*1935), Hildegard Joos (1909–2005), Gerhard Kaiser (*1955), Michael Kienzer (*1962), Fritz Klemm (1902–1990), Imi Knoebel (*1940), Edgar Knoop (*1936), Cornelius Kolig (1942–2022), Brigitte Kowanz (1957–2022), Richard Kriesche (*1940), Edit Lajos (*1975), Camill Leberer (*1953), Morris Louis (1912–1962), Julia Mangold (*1966), Dóra Maurer (*1937), Christian Megert (*1936), János Megyik (*1938), Gabi Mitterer (*1967), Vera Molnar (1924–2023), François Morellet (1926–2016), Melitta Moschik (*1960), Josef Adam Moser (*1952), Klaus Mosettig (*1975), Gerhardt Moswitzer (1940–2013), Ben Muthofer (1937–2020), Osamu Nakajima (1937–2013), David Nash (*1945), C. O. Paeffgen (1933–2019), Hermann J. Painitz (1938–2018), Helga Philipp (1939–2002), Franz Pichler (*1960), Josef Pillhofer (1921–2010), Raimund Pleschberger (*1974), Rudolf Polanszky (*1951), Oskar Putz (*1940), Raphaela Riepl (*1985), Robert Sagerman (*1966), Peter Sandbichler (*1964), Annette Sauermann (*1957), Robert Schad (*1953), Eva Schlegel (*1960), Klaus J. Schoen (1931–2018), Jan J. Schoonhoven (1914–1994), Johann Schwarz (*1963), Park Seo-Bo (1931–2023), Keith Sonnier (1941–2020), Klaus Staudt (*1932), Esther Stocker (*1974), Gaby Terhuven (*1960), Jeremy Thomas (*1973), Bill Thompson (*1957), Erwin Thorn (1930–2012), Jorrit Tornquist (1938–2023), Günther Uecker (*1930), Manfred Wakolbinger (*1952), Franz Erhard Walther (*1939), Peter Weber (*1944), Maximilian Weishaupt (1949–2018), Ludwig Wilding (1927–2010) und Markus Wilfling (*1966).

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue containing texts by Alexandra Schantl and Franziska Straubinger, numerous exhibition views and illustrations of works, as well as interviews with Agathe Weishaupt and Peter Liaunig.

Exhibition view "BLIND DATE": Inge Dick (detail) / Cornelius Kolig

Special exhibition

Otto Eder

Sun 28 April–Sun 28 July 2024

Otto Eder: From inferno to harmony
A great Austrian sculptor at Museum Liaunig

An anniversary year for Otto Eder: the Carinthian artist was born a hundred years ago on 4 February 1924 in Seeboden on Lake Millstatt. He is one of the most important sculptors of the Austrian post-war period. Eder began his studies with Fritz Wotruba in Vienna in 1948. Having been injured several times during the war at the age of 19, he tried to come to terms with his traumatic experiences at the academy. He assembled figures from the rubble of bombed-out houses and other found objects, held together only by dowels. The invention of the ‘dowel sculpture’, this break with classical sculpture, caused a sensation for Wotruba, as did Eder's alleged improper behaviour. Eder was expelled from the academy. Nevertheless, Wotruba remarked in his report: ‘I consider him to be a particularly skilled sculptor...’. Kristian Sotriffer, an important critic at the time, considered Eder ‘one of the most interesting in Wotruba's circle’.

Eder's sculptures are characterised by the assembly of elements as in the dowel sculpture. A second concern for him was the human figure. Female nudes became maternal idols. Major themes were also realised on a large scale in male figures: The philosopher, the dying man, the upright man... After the inferno of war, Eder sought a new perspective in a third theme. Inspired by Greek philosophy and art of the 5th century BC, by the experience of nature, by the attempt to summarise the feminine and masculine in one figure, he found his third major themes in ‘Harmony’ and ‘Unity’. The ovoid as the archetypal form of nature, the round feminine and the towering masculine were united in his ‘Plastic System’, in his ‘Formula’ in marble figures up to almost three metres high.

In his final years, Eder tried to set up a cultural centre in Krastal with the ‘Verein Begegnung in Kärnten - Werkstätte im Krastal’. But his life clock had run out. Many reasons led to his suicide in Seeboden in 1982.

Eder exhibited from Prague to Zagreb and took part in European sculpture symposia. Among other honours, he received the Austrian State Prize for Sculpture, became a member of the Vienna Secession and was awarded the title of professor. Large marble figures by Eder can be found in Vienna, Seeboden, Klagenfurt, Leoben, in the German town of Moers, in Portorož in Slovenia and in Mollis in Switzerland. Since Eder's death, his works have been exhibited in museums in Salzburg, Vienna, Passau, Klagenfurt, Villach and now in Neuhaus. Works can be found in museums in Vienna, Klagenfurt, Salzburg, Neuhaus, Künzelsau in Germany and other important collections.

In 1991, the Altnöder Gallery in Salzburg acquired Eder's estate, including the rights, and Ferdinand Altnöder inherited the copyright. In 1996, a biography by Dr Elisabeth Rath was published with a catalogue raisonné listing 154 sculptural works and 14 works of architectural art.

A catalogue with texts by Ferdinand Altnöder and Otto Breicha accompanies the exhibition. 

Exhibition view "Otto Eder"

Sculpture depot

Meina Schellander
IN EINEN KREIS EIN QUADRAT –

Sun 28 April–Thu 31 October 2024

‘My concept has nothing to do with squaring the circle in the geometric sense, but with the gravity of the considerations according to Ludwig Wittgenstein's logic, which I have had in me from the beginning. It is about an intuitive juxtaposition of the works according to assigned weights and according to their weight of content and logic of reference: one [a work] is heavier, the other is lighter, yet another evaporates.’ (Quote from Meina Schellander)

The artist's feeling as to how her works are ‘loaded’ and whether they represent a dialogue or a contrast is the only thing that points the way. Meina Schellander sees her works as absolutely existential, never in the way that curators or art historians would read and categorise them. ‘All these dimensions have actually been considerations in my work from the very beginning, since the 1970s.’

The image of Schellander's orchestration of the round hall presents itself in an interplay of rigour (through the basic geometric structure) and intuition (through the works placed in the space with different effects on each other). It is a composed space with the same tensions and new creations that can be perceived in every single work by this versatile artist. Starting from a basic dialectical attitude, resistant forms emerge (quote from Schellander), as well as ironisations that manifest themselves in contrasting materials (e.g. soft-hard / warm-cold) and through a ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ side.

The recent wars, crises and economic issues that are occurring in the immediate vicinity are consciously expressed in the works in this exhibition. They invite the public to allow them to have an effect on them and to find their own approach.

Schellander speaks of the emergence of an interpretation that she would like to pass on to the viewer in the experience of her work.

Exhibition view "IN EINEN KREIS EIN QUADRAT –"

Graphics wing

Peter Baum: artist posters 1955–1975

Sun 28 April–Thu 31 Ocotober 2024

In the graphics wing, the focus is on the artist poster collection of Peter Baum (*1939), who has built up an extensive archive as a visual artist, photographer, art critic and long-standing museum director.

Starting in Paris at the end of the 19th century and in European and American metropolises, above all Vienna, Berlin, New York and Chicago, the poster, as we still know it today in a variety of applications as a fast and directly informative advertising medium, rapidly became established. The ingenious large posters by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec for the famous Parisian nightclubs and revues soon became a style-defining global success. The highest demands were placed on the printing and design of posters in the cultural sector, especially for exhibitions, museums, galleries and advertising for cafés and restaurants. Initially, the market leader was lithography based on flat ground slate slabs, on which artists could draw directly and thus prepare the finished stones (Solnhofen slate) for printing.

Whether typeset letters were used or everything was written and drawn by hand was irrelevant. What was always important was the authenticity of the printed poster, which - signed by the artist himself - became a particularly sought-after collector's item, especially in the art world. In the first exhibition of its kind, 52 examples from the period 1955 to 1975, primarily intended for interiors and designed with variety and originality in mind, are on display in the foyer of the Peter Baum Library, demonstrating the diversity, inventiveness, originality and individualism of the posters, which oscillate between image and text.

In addition to the ‘classic’ artists' posters mentioned above, such as those by Mikl, Tàpies, Jasper Johns, Chagall, Dubuffet, Poliakoff, Jean Tinguely or the Austrians Roland Goeschl and Hermann Painitz, other examples show the use of photography in studio shots, artist portraits and action photos by Emil Schumacher, Christian Ludwig Attersee and Walter Pichler or Keith Haring. Emperor Franz Joseph with a cap (by Bohumil Štěpán) or Hans Staudacher's exuberant collage of a Secession festival (1961), juxtaposed with a highly expressive graphic in radical black and white by Gunter Damisch, created decades later in a similar yet completely different style, is not something to pass by quickly.

Exhibition view "artist posters 1955–1975"