Universalmuseum Joanneum Press

Universalmuseum Joanneum [email protected] Mariahilferstraße 4, 8020 , Telephone +43-316/8017-9211 www.museum-joanneum.at Kunsthaus Graz and Neue Galerie Graz Programme 2012

Modernism – Suicide of Art? Reflections of the Collection of the Neue Galerie Graz Joanneumsviertel, Neue Galerie, Graz, Ground floor Duration: until Sept 2, 2012 Curators: Peter Weibel, Christa Steinle, Gudrun Danzer

In radical Modernism, everything that had to that point only been painted, i.e. only represented, was replaced by reality, or by real things – so the premise of the exhibition to mark the new opening of the Neue Galerie in the Joanneum Quarter. As a response to the banishment of the objective world through abstract painting, Marcel Duchamp introduced real objects or “readymades” into art. Later, Actionism and Performance took the place of pictures of the human body, Land Art instead of the painted landscape, assemblages and installations instead of painted still lifes. The Neue Galerie Graz reflects this fundamental shift from representation to reality with its own collections – with art from 1800 to the present day. The hypothesis is examined in ten chapters: Line – Colour – Light – Sound – Movement – Landscape – Still Life – Interiors – Bodies –– Interaction between Artwork and Viewer. All 400 works on show are illustrated in the catalogue (Publisher: Hatje Cantz), accompanied by an essay on principles and theoretical texts on the individual chapters by Peter Weibel, Christa Steinle, Gudrun Danzer.

BRUSEUM A Museum for Günter Brus Joanneumsviertel, BRUSEUM Duration: until April 9, 2012 Curators: Anke Orgel, Peter Weibel

With the opening of the Neue Galerie Graz in the Joanneum Quarter, the comprehensive collection of works by the Austrian artist Günter Brus is presented to the public in the newly founded BRUSEUM. The exhibition emphasises Brus’ importance as a “panartist or polyartist of renaissance-like stature” (Peter Weibel) with a selection of the artist’s various creative areas and phases – from Viennese Actionist to painter, drawer, picture-poet and writer. Besides early informal works and photographic and filmic documentaries of Actions between 1964 and 1970, which illustrate his international status as a key artist of Body Art, Brus’ radical, post-Actionist phase of the early 1970s is conveyed by way of example. Moreover, picture-poems, drawings and printed graphics cover a time-span from the 1970s to the present day, explaining the complexity of his work as well as providing evidence of his significance as a world-class artist. The BRUSEUM collection is documented by a comprehensive publication.

Seite 2

Hans Hollein Joanneumsviertel, Neue Galerie, Graz, Upper floor Duration: until April 9, 2012 Curators: Peter Weibel, Günther Holler-Schuster

An artist was sought for the opening exhibition of the Neue Galerie Graz who fits with the idea of the Universalmuseum and who has a connection with the history of the Neue Galerie Graz. As a fine artist, designer and architect, Hans Hollein is a universal artist. He was shown at the Biennale of Venice in 1972 by Wilfried Skreiner, former head of the Neue Galerie. As an architect Hans Hollein is world-famous. He is the only Austrian Pritzker Award winner, and President of the Architectural Biennale of Venice. His early artistic work, which resulted in exhibitions in MoMA in New York and in the Centre Pompidou in Paris among others, has disappeared from view, yet he has worked with such important artists as Christo, Ernst Oldenburg and Joseph Beuys. In this exhibition for the first time, the entire work of the artist, designer and architect is presented to the public on such a scale, complemented by a comprehensive publication.

Michael Kienzer and Self-Will Kunsthaus Graz, Space01 Opening: March 2, 2012 Duration: March 3–May 6, 2012 Curator: Katrin Bucher Trantow

The Styrian artist Michael Kienzer is concerned with viewing habits: he breaks them, reduces them to absurdity, and thereby takes the public on a journey to the apparently fixed constructions of common knowledge. In an exhibition for Space01, he will make direct reference to space, and in his new works take a close look at the unfamiliar.

Sofie Thorsen Cut A-A’ Kunsthaus Graz, Space02 Opening: March 2, 2012 Duration: March 3–May 6, 2012 Curators: Katrin Bucher Trantow, Katia Huemer Cooperation with the Diagonale 2012

Vienna-based Danish artist Sofie Thorsen is a precise observer of culturally shaped forms. In her filmic, photographic and drawing oeuvres, formulated in a formal, highly precise way, she dedicates herself to the city and its history, depicting space as built history in its political, social and art-historical context.

Seite 3

BRUSEUM Collective Works Joanneumsviertel, BRUSEUM Opening: May 11, 2012 Duration: May 11–August 19, 2012 Curator: Anke Orgel

Since the early 1970s, Günther Brus has cooperated with other artists. In his collective works, mostly cyclical works arise as a reaction to a prompt made by the other, manifesting itself as a reflection both in terms of form and contents. Thanks to generous donations made by Günter Brus and Dominik Steiger, the BRUSEUM now owns the almost complete cycle Jeden jeden Mittwoch. Ein Zwoman / Every Every Wednesday. A Novel in Two (1974) by these two artists, which represents an early picture-poem. Every Wednesday one artist received post from the other in the form of a drawing in A4 format with a text and pictures, to which the other artist reacted. In this way over 100 sheets were created. Moreover, collective works with Arnulf Rainer, Jörg Schlick, Otto Muehl and are shown from the museum’s collection, added to by loans from other collective projects, including those with Christian Ludwig Attersee and other artists of the younger generation, from the 1970s to the present day.

Michelangelo Pistoletto Mirror and Minus Objects Joanneumsviertel, Neue Galerie, Graz, Upper floor Opening: June 1, 2012 Duration: June 2–Oct 6, 2012 Curator: Peter Pakesch

Michelangelo Pistoletto is known as one of the most important representatives of Arte Povera, and meanwhile recognised worldwide for his iconic mirror works. The painter, object artist, theatre producer and teacher has been connected with Austria and Graz since his participation in trigon 1975, his own exhibition in the Künstlerhaus in 1988, and various forms of involvement in the Neue Galerie and the Kunsthaus Graz. Given his interest in metaphysical questions, in the conditions of existence, and collective drives and dependencies, his work is concerned primarily with the topic of reflection and the unification of art and everyday life in the sense of a Gesamtkunstwerk. The exhibition, starting with historical works in the Neue Galerie, spreads out into the Kunsthaus premises, thus – complemented with Pistoletto’s latest works – turning into a comprehensive retrospective.

Seite 4

Project Cittadellarte Kunsthaus Graz, Space01 Opening: June 1, 2012 Duration: June 2–Aug 26, 2012 Curators: Katrin Bucher Trantow, Paolo Naldini

Created by Michelangelo Pistoletto, Cittadellarte is an open network which divides into work, upbringing, communication, art, nutrition, politics, spirituality and economy, and, like a glass microcosm, shifts production and common inspiration to the foreground of an economically functioning art system that avoids rigid divisions by area. The exhibition in the Kunsthaus Graz becomes a utopia, very much alive, turning the art system into an open supermarket, and so creating the idea of a modern, constructed city that works according to market-based rules.

Styrian Media Art Collection Kunsthaus Graz, Space02 Opening: June 15, 2012 Duration: June 16–Feb 3, 2013 Curators: Günther Holler-Schuster, Katrin Bucher Trantow, Katja Huemer

The Neue Galerie Graz owns an outstanding photo and collection. These collections were first shown on a large scale in the exhibitions Flashback (2007) and Rewind/Fast Forward (2009). Here the emphasis was also on quantity so as to show the vast collecting activity of this institution. Styrian Media Art Collection (2012) is devised to show another exhibition from this highly diverse collection in the Kunsthaus premises. This time the idea is to have installation works from both areas. This starts off with overdimensional formats which open up the picture in the direction of the room, to the point of three-dimensional arrangements that in part depend on the participation of the public. These days especially, when the most varied image-based media are employed and have altered reality so much that we generally have the feeling of being relocated to a virtual image-space, discourse on the transformation of image to image-space becomes a key theme. Forms of extended reality and virtuality are firm elements of everyday life. Art reflects this on the one hand, yet on the other it goes several important steps further, thus contributing once again to changes in perception. Through its sculptural character that goes beyond orthogonality, the architecture of the Kunsthaus supports these ideas, and so becomes an additional dimension.

Seite 5

Subversive Painting (Working title) Kunsthaus Graz, Space01 Opening: Sept 21, 2012 Duration: Sept 22–Feb 3, 2013 Project in collaboration with the steirischer herbst

An exhibition with various artistic positions has been devised for the steirischer herbst festival that raises thematic questions that the festival will tackle. In this way the notion of the subversive within the medium of painting will be discussed.

BRUSEUM Literary Estate Donation Joanneumsviertel, BRUSEUM Opening: Oct 5, 2012 Duration: Oct 6, 2012–Feb 17, 2013 Curator: Anke Orgel

The literary estate donated by Günter Brus in 2009 has enrichened the BRUSEUM by an important asset. Not only does Günter Brus continuously dissolve borders between literature and fine art with his picture-poems, he has also been active as a writer for more than 30 years. Besides numerous contributions to magazines and columns, several novels and collected writings have been published since 1984. The literary estate (donated by the artist himself) consists of over 700 notebooks, work manuscripts and designs with more than 20,000 written pages, which have been created since the beginning of the 1970s. Within the texts and notebooks, Günter Brus frequently bursts the literary limits of the genres: verse and prose are placed next to each other, there are diary notes, dialogues, aphorisms and slivers of thought next to notes on everyday matters such as telephone numbers and shopping lists. Above all, the literary principle of “continuous writing” is characteristic of Brus: (in)homogenous body texts flowing together without chapters that structure them or beginning and end. Instructions in direct speech, dialogues, quotes and biographical observations alternate with each other, while new word creations, puns and spoonerisms provide continual linguistic wit and irony. Not only are the origins of Brus’ literary work conveyed here, but also the artist’s biographical and artistic development is documented. Thus numerous sketches, drawings and notes also serve as an important and revealing source for the genesis of individual picture- poems.

Seite 6

Collection Exhibition Joanneumsviertel, Neue Galerie, Graz, Ground floor Opening: Oct 19, 2012 Permanent exhibition Curators: Peter Peer, Gudrun Danzer, Günther Holler-Schuster, Anke Orgel

Through its exhibition and collection activities the Neue Galerie Graz has accompanied and documented the development of the most varied contemporary artistic trends. In addition there is a segment of art from the 19th and early 20th century, the cornerstone of which was laid with the foundation of the Joanneum, and which has likewise been regularly extended over the years. The Neue Galerie Collection developed as a result a variety of artistic directions and media, which ranges from historical to contemporary, from local to international positions. Currents represented are Biedermeier, Jugendstil, (regional) forms of Expressionism and Classical Modernism, positions of Austrian and international painting after 1945 (including the so-called “trigon” countries), Viennese Actionism, Media and Concept Art etc., in such varied media as painting, graphics, sculpture, photography, video and installational works. This variety is to be conveyed to the public as part of a permanent yet at the same time flexibly conceived exhibition collection in the Joanneum Quarter. This means that particular parts of the exhibition are exchanged or renewed at regular intervals. Thus over several years the widest possible overview of the collection assets can be ensured, and, moreover, a so-called “permanent exhibition” becomes more attractive by continuous change. An extension of the permanent exhibition to parts of the upper floor is planned for coming years.

Maria Lassnig Retrospective Joanneumsviertel, BRUSEUM Opening: Nov 16, 2012 Duration: Nov 17, 2012–Feb 17, 2013 Curator: Günther Holler-Schuster

Maria Lassnig is one of the most important living artists today. When she first had a solo exhibition in the Neue Galerie Graz in 1970, she was an insider’s tip even in Austria. But that exhibition already showed her links to Graz, the Neue Galerie and the Forum Stadtpark, in which she was time and again on show. Unfortunately Lassnig’s career has been typical for a female artist of her generation – she was born in 1919. Long in the shadow of male colleagues, she has indeed been especially committed to a paradigm of female art in the themes and concerns of her work, without subordinating this to feminist issues. The exhibition in the Neue Galerie will offer a review of her complete work with representative examples. This work traces in quintessential form developments in painting between abstract expressionism and more recent figuration. In many areas of contemporary art Lassnig was always seen as a pioneer. In the exhibition we will be able in large part to draw on rarely seen works from her studio. This selection is extended by substantial loans from museums and private collection both from Austria and abroad. The exhibition project is intended to initiate the process of cataloguing the artist’s works.