Alexander

Ruthner For the press

Regarded throughout the series the continuous repetition of floral elements inAlexander Ruthners give the impression of ornamental patterns and aesthetical decor. In their decorativity the oil paintings grasp an es- sence of classical , but these romantic impressions get fractured by relics of contemporary culture(s). On closer examination the aesthetical approach tends to portray the ambivalence of de-naturalized modern living. The paintings might promise salvation at the first view: The deliverance from nowadays being might appear in some kind of natural paradise, that the green shades in the paintings offer, but at the second glance this promi- se turns out to be an illusion. There is no such escapism for today´s urban youth. Nature only offers a locus for boredom. So this tediousness meets the banal. The trivialities entail not just the absurd but some kind of horror; a threat intrinsically, because of the suggestion of the impossible.

Yet the paintings include some kind of nostalgia an love for the alternative cultures. These aspects of the super- ficial are crucial to Alexander Ruthners topics. The connotations of coolness and trivial gestures so seem to be arbitrarily disseminated on the paintings. But the blurring of foreground and back underlines painting´s intrinsic feature of flatness.

With their predominance of shades of green the canvases are reminiscent of classical landscape painting. But this subtle reference to landscape art gets annihilated by the dominion of the surface over the three-dimensional. Blue Chip Oil on Canvas 180 x 200 cm 2013

The Blue Chip is a blue chewing gum. A bored exhibition visitor left it on the painting quasi as a souvenir. It is camomile tea or elderberry juice which taste good and are healthy, but do not make you drunk. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us, who live in the metropolises of the world, to contemplate the starlit sky. The street lighting and the smog create and reflect too much light.

It is established that the gaze of the astronaut is fixed on the blue, little Earth.

The Blue Chip is made out of a small blue potato. Wiesenstück Oil on Canvas 180 x 200 cm 2013

WIESENSTÜCK

If one sees the painting meadow bit from a great distance, one instantaneously feels the need to approach it since meadow bit is one of those paintings best contemplated from very close. One easily recalls the 2007 Biennale contribution of the Austrian painter Herbert Brandl, which sanctified meadows. At the time, one of Brandl‘s paintings was consciously hung outside of the pavilion, where it was exposed to wind and weather, but also prompted vandalism (of the painting). Unfortunately, I only learned this when reading the catalogue - too late – thus sabotaging myself by complying to rules again. There are probably not many things more beautiful than a sprayed-on meadow. Hacienda Oil on Canvas 180 x 200 cm 2013

HACIENDA

“The Zeitgeist called it “New Painting“. However, it was just party art . “ Peter Weibel, 2013

How not to run a club, is the title of the book about one of the most notoriously famous clubs of all times - the Fac51 Hacienda in Manchester. The name of the club, Hacienda, derives from a text called “Formulary for a New Urbanism” by Iwan Schtscheglow. For the manager of the Hazienda the ideals and concepts of the Lettrists and Situationists were instrumental for the edification of the club and of the record label Factory Records (Joy Division, New Order....)

The experience and perception of art and that of celebrating and partying is one that is different and should not be mingled. However, the search for, or the actual edification of a counter-world lies at the heart of both. When, as a small child, one couldn‘t speak or didn‘t, for instance, know, where the fog came from and why it suddenly disappeared, life was accompanied by short instances of odd clarity, everything appeared glossy and sparkled in the sun- or moonshine. In these moments one remembered nothing and there was no future.

The painting Hazienda deals with the laughable gesture of the cocktail. Everything mixed! Homework Union Oil on Canvas Oil on Canvas 135 x 135 cm 135 x 135 cm 2013 2013

Environment Pin/ Button Oil on Canvas Oil on Canvas 100 x100 cm 100 x100 cm 2013 2013

ENVIRONMENT, HOMEWORK, UNION, PIN / BUTTON

The abstract, ornamental painting of a Friedensreich Hundertwasser or a Gustav Klimt serves as starting point for paintings like Environment, Union or zB Pin/Button. Since the ornament is by nature a crime (Adolf Loos), one shouldn‘t/can‘t perceive paintings as a demimonde.

What happens when one conflates esoteric and political conscience? The conception of the depressive Hippie. Air Oil on Canvas 100 x 90 cm 2013

AIR

‚90s kids identify the title of this painting with melodious music, boredom, scratched underarms and suicide. The flicked away, barely put out cigarettes indicate past action. A nostalgic picture. Cloud Atlas Oil on Canvas 100 x 100 cm 2013

CLOUD ATLAS

The torn off head of a Micky Mouse play figure, airbrushed moss, the metamorphisis of a tissue paper to a peace dove – and why the hell is the grass blue?

Despite never having watched the film Cloud Atlas, I liked the title. The motion picture Cloud Atlas narrates the story of a long time span. Furthermore the title is composed by two words which describe nature. Mingus Oil on Canvas 100 x 90 cm 2013

MINGUS

In the Western World the Ming-vase is first and foremost (in film and TV) apprehended as symbol for high-end craftsmanship and invaluable worth which is often destroyed by sloppy gestures like the accidental push of a socket or a fight. Mostly this act is inserted in the canon of comedy. The depicted Ming-vase as cocktail recipient with straw and lemon reminisces the perception of Asian culture similarly - consciously superficial. However, the depiction tries to indicate a deeper laying problem of our times: The perception and understanding of images shifted from the generative source to a concentration on accessibility in media and appropriation. Omega Oil on Canvas 100 x 90 cm 2013

OMEGA

Omega Speedmaster Professional is the correct designation of the here mannerly depicted watch (see also: Nature of Speed).

The absence of a hand is indicative of an invisible carrier (a so called invisible man). Never was he portray- ed on such a dusty canvas; even the dust is painted. One can discern various citations of the painting canon. A tuft of grass sits at the corner of the painting like the impact of a grenade. However, there remains room for the depicted space to expand into the back. Untitled Kaviar Oil on Canvas 100 x 90 cm 2013

Untitled Caviar

What is hidden underneath the surface? I too often fell into the water as a small child. But mermaids never pulled me into a deeper realm. Caviar is supposed to taste good, but I only know frog spawn, in which little tadpoles already fidget. In the last second I reach the shore with mud in my hair. The painting depicts the water of an untended pool. Sylvretta Oil on Canvas 100 x 90 cm 2013 Zurbarans Zitrone Oil on Canvas 100 x 90 cm 2013 Planet Oil on Canvas 90 x 90 cm 2013 Untitled Oil on Canvas 100 x 100 cm 2013 Bazille Oil on Canvas 100 x 100 cm 2013 Tagtrauma Oil on Canvas 150 x 200 cm 2012

“Tagtrauma” (engl.: Daytrauma)

The painting “Tagtrauma” shows a meadow coated with puddles which are complemented by ochre-brown streaks underscoring the camouflage quality of it. The apparent weight of the (meadow-, oil-, mud-) carpet is relieved by graphically sloppy details which cover almost the entire area.Only three puddles of water interrupt this background which mirror a starry sky.

The complete lack of a vanishing point tempts the eye to constantly meander over the painting and to concentrate on the focussed and unfocussed spots. One tries to figure out where one is located but never achieves any clarity.

Tagtrauma is a quiet, dark, and secret place which one wants to withdraw to, but which doesn’t exist.

If one was to enter it, it could just so happen, that there will be no exit. Still, one is entranced by the dull beauty of eternity. The claim of eternity is also evoked by an exaggerated, brush centred method, which registers painting technique only at the side and worships the spontaneous gesture.

The conflation of reality and dream happens when one focusses his eyes on the same spot for too long.

The almost preraphaelite nature of the painting is fractured by the Underground and subculture codes. Thrown on the image almost like bombs of colour, the camouflage elements reminisce an army trouser or jacket. Textile print and genre are not unwanted associations in Daytrauma – if one can even say that any association is actively wanted here.

Taytrauma rests like a pond which one would have liked to visit but never could; which one didn‘t have the courage to approach, since one was scared to know what it conceals: a memory of the future. Olympia Oil on Canvas 150 x 200 cm 2012 Untitled Oil on Canvas 190 x 210 cm 2012 9, Lenikus Collection (2011)

Untitled Oil on Canvas 135 x 135 cm 2011

installation view Vacant Galleries, Gschwandner Hallen (2012)

Untitled ABC Oil on Canvas 190 x 900 cm (3 Panels a 190 x 300 cm) 2012 Untitled ABC Oil on Canvas 190 x 900 cm (3 Panels a 190 x 300 cm) 2012 Gruppe, Studio Mühlgasse (2011)

Big Nada Oil on Canvas 190 x 180 cm 2011 American Apparel Oil on Canvas 100 x 150 cm 2011 Yamaha Oil on Canvas 80 x 80 cm 2011 Status quo, Kunstraum am Schauplatz (2011)

One week of boredom installation mixed media Hay, oil on canvas, paper, wood 400cm x 200 cm 2010 EINE magazine (2005 - present)

EINE 1 EINE 2 Published: 2007 Published: 2009 20 pages / 1-color 144 pages / 4-color With With Rade Petrasevic and Alexander Ruthner Stephane de Castelbajac, Franz Graf, Lukas Gansterer, Cathrin Ulikowski, Albert Mayr uva

EINE 3 EINE 4 Published: 2010 Published: 2012 340 pages / 4-color 200 pages / 4-color With With Daniel Richter, , Anna Jermolaewa, Catherine Hug, Max Henry, COCO, Wendy & Jim, Manuel Gorkiewcz, Christian Mayer, , Plamen Dejanoff, Katharina Grosse, Oswald Oberhuber, Stefan Armbruster, John Bock and many others. Adrian Buschmann, Martin Grandits and many others.

EINE or EINE magazine is an ongoing art publication from . It perceives itself as Austrian medium for art and photography, which serves the linking between the Austrian and the international art scene. The range of artists does not however restrict itself to Vienna based Artists or on international Austrian positions, rather it is lead by the international presence and relevance of each featured artist. The focus on painting and photography is complemented by interviews with and texts from the artists themselves. Showing the works of a younger generation as well as those of middle and older generations, the magazine is able to hint towards possible parallelisms and derivations.

EINE distinguishes itself by its elaborate and exclusive picture production and emphasizes the importance of a de- tailed presentation of the individual positions of the artists. The spontaneous dealing with material and graphics is a further asset that makes it stand out from similar publications.

Alexander Ruthner is the main editor of the magazine. www.eine.at Thomas Mießgang about EINE magazine, on the occasion of the exhibition „Lives and works in Vienna III“ („Lebt und arbeitet in Wien III“), KUNSTHALLE Vienna:

„Glamour and Bohemia-trash, fashion and despair, road kill and ecstasy: in his EINE magazine, Alexander Ruthner pats down the – analogue – medial contemporary surfaces and forces them into the bed of Procrustes that is a for- matted appearance. Generously endowed with images, you could understand the publication as a blend of fashion magazine and art fanzine. EINE is a print product, which does not want to be style-statement or fashion-manifest, but a hybrid, a Summa Theologica of allegations, assumptions and quasi-religious statements of belief about cele- brity phenomena and the economy of attention.

It is the world of shock art of a Jonathan Meese, lasciviously glancing teenage-models, decadent urban dandies and youngest wild ones, that is visually performed by Alexander Ruthner. A catalogue of clichés which medially construe youth today, and which in their bundled appearance, transcend themselves. Even the biggest lie veils a core of true desire – this is what Alexander Ruthner wants to express on different levels of figuration. And in the end the complications of the advanced digital age can always be reduced to the old dichotomy of „Boy meets Girl“ - or optionally Boy meets Boy or Girl meets Girl. This is also why Ruthner‘s contribution to the catalogue is a long list of couple formations.“ Saint ghetto, Remap KM 2, (2009)

left painting right painting in the background: in the background:

Overpainted Funeral in Ornans Untitled Oil, Acrylics on Canvas spraypaint, paper on canvas 180 x 280 cm 200 x 210 cm 2009 2009 The 100th exhibition, Autocenter, (2010)

Chloe Oil on Canvas 80 x 100 cm 2010

installation view Nicht der Mörder, der Ermordete ist schuldig, Die Ausstellungsstrasse , solo presentation (2010) Untitled Airbrush, Oil on Canvas 70 x 80 cm 2010 Werner & Johann Untitled (Graz) Oil on Canvas C-Print 30 x 40 cm 22 x 30 cm 2010 2010 The Raw and the Cooked, Paintings by Alexander Ruthner

Text by Max Henry

In the paintings of Alexander Ruthner genre and style overlap; the representational and the abstract converge, image, texture, and pattern have equal space. A polyglot image-maker from the social networking generation, his approach to painting thrives on the mul- ti-media spectacle of the everyday. With a flair for unusual graphic juxtapositions his do-it-yourself publica- tions encompass catalogs, zine’s, poetry, and the bi-annual ‘Eine’ magazine. In hundreds of pages of printed media, you’ll find the starting point of his absurdist penchant for high and low that serves his painting motifs. Central to his painting is a distillation and quotation of disparate imagery that he makes his own. Working like an editor of fictionalized diaries he culls all things Pop culture (including digital media) all the while nodding to historical paintings structural underpinnings related to anatomy and composition. (Bellini, to Max Ernst, and David Hockney).

Ruthner’s dissection of various subcultures ultimately lies within painting itself. They area ridiculously un- couth painters impressions on the reality that reality television edits out. Taken as a whole they can be compared with the hero’s and heroines pinned up in a teenage boys bedroom or the wall of iconographic posters hanging in a college freshman’s dormitory. Singularly they’re a rogue’s gallery filled with ironic humor on apathetic hipsters, carica-tures of drug laden party animals including those archetypical ly familiar trendsetters and posers found amongst social cliques. Situated within a palette of gnarly garish color, from the recessed memory of his all night binges he recalls, renders, and hilariously embellishes twisted mis-en-scenes that encompass absurd situations within their narrative space. In this very animated style the tension between a very fine hand and more raw tangled lumped masses of impasto somehow reconciles itself. A carousel of somewhat surreal images with street edginess and art savvy result in rude juxtapositions where figures are mostly anatomically correct yet often topped off by monstrous heads, like zombies from B-movies.

Some fashionably forlorn young female wears a patterned tunic appropriated and remixed from a magazine photograph. Afterwards in another painting that same pattern gets enlarged and exaggerated into a completely abstract painting. A bizarre encounter between a half-man/bird and a helpless man and women being pulled and dragged is Ruthner’s reinterpretation of a well-known Max Ernst etching. Another picture shows two young punk dudes seated on a ratty yellow sofa looking high on formaldehyde. The red/magenta abstract pattern behind them has the appearance of barbed wire climbing the wall. For his take on tainted nature a serene blue horizon segues its mountai- nous landscape into a jarring killing field of vegetation with skulls in place of flowers on the stems.

The compact automobile painted in a vibrant cadmium red dominates a street scene adorned with graffiti storefronts. Except for a thick shadowy black figure, there are no people in sight but a nefarious thuggish activity is apparent.

Peculiar to his robust output is a gender-bending stratagem where androgynous sexuality and the grotesque go hand-in-hand with crass situations relaying a fly-on-the-wall view. For the youth of today have no boundaries. Anything goes so long as their vitriolic waywardness is washed down with anesthetizing libations and soothing stimulants pave the road with adventu- rous encounters.

Strung out on global Pop culture, all of its constantly shifting signifiers are hollowed out along with the sacred values of yesteryear. Lacking philosophical meaning, this nihilistic post-Internet generation none-the-less consumes, devours, and pukes it all out with morbid attention and vacuous self-destruction. These monsters are thoroughly raw and totally cooked. Untitled (Lucille) Untitled (Gemma) Oil on Canvas Oil on Canvas 30 x 40 cm 70 x 90 cm 2010 2010 Franz Pollock / Karlheinz Pettibon / Jenny Duchamp / Otto Rauschenberg – 4 Positionen – kuratiert von Alex Ruthner’ , Kunstraum am Schauplatz (2008) About the works

The works deal with conventional conceptions of the painting-medium, the process that creates them and the role of the artist in society. In their visual composition the illusionist moment retreats to give way to spontaneity. The painting-process is thus made visible in the result of the painting(s). In this sense it is possible to understand the works as self-reflexive paintings addressing medium-inherent questions. The focus does not lie on taking a definite position but rather on the practice of exposing contents with adequate complexity. Therefore, questions posed remain mostly unanswered. The humoristic elements should be understood in context with the latter aspect: they function to create further tensions.

The choice of material plays an important role. Through the juxtaposition of medium and topic the works question traditional materials such as canvas and colour and the therewith associated claim to art.

Each group of works is dedicated to specific motives and goals which however are mostly to be found in the context of painting/art. Thus for instance paintings which are concerned with the discussions of painting within society, are made on carton, whereas those which pose questions about tradition are made on canvas. Employed quite often, this figuration attends less to narration than to the conveyance of an artistic attitude.

The latest works distance themselves from figuration itself and concentrate on the surface, the canvas as such. The drawings function as wall mirroring the working process. The painting procedure manifests itself through traces of colour. Artistic references appear as direct citations. To demonstrate the claim to art, these references show fragments of a classic academic conceptions of art. By applying them on a surface they stress the object-character of the canvas. Untitled spraypaint and acrylics on canvas 250 x 140 cm 2008 Untitled spraypaint and acrylics on canvas 220 x 220 cm 2008 Untitled spraypaint and acrylics on canvas 220 x 220 cm 2008 Apocalyptic Colors, Galerie Gabriele Senn (2008) Untitled (Studio wall) mixed media on oanvas 200 x 200 cm 2008

Öl und so spraypaint, acrylics on cardboard 100 x 150 cm 2008 Alexander Ruthner born 1982

Education

Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna Klasse PETER KOGLER (New Media) Klasse DANIEL RICHTER (Painting) (Diploma 2010)

Erasmus Programme: Academy of Fine Arts Düsseldorf, Klasse ALBERT OEHLEN (Painting) Athens School of Fine Arts

2013 Nature of Speed, Exit Gallery, Hong Kong Büro für Weltaustellung, Vienna (solo) (July 2013)

2012 Viennafair Make me like it!, Vacant Galleries, Vienna BRUCENNIAL, New York Der Grieche am Flutgraben, Berlin Die Würfel III, COCO , Vienna Wall of Fame, Olympische Jugendspiele, Innsbruck

2011 9, Lenikus Collection, Vienna Galerie Utopia / The forgotten Bar Project, Remap KM 3, Athens GRUPPE, Studio Mühlgasse, Vienna ERSTE Bank Ausstellung, Der Grieche, Berlin

2010 EINE Amnesia, Lenikus Collection, Vienna the 100th exhibition, Autocenter, Berlin Lebt und arbeitet in Wien III, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna Schimmeliges Brot, Galerie Schlechtriem, Berlin Psychonavigation,

2009 Saint Ghetto, REMAP KM 2, Athens A present is a Gift, National Museum of Montenegro, Cetinje peephole appraoch to artist couples, Sezession Wichtelgasse

2008 Apocalyptic Colors, Galerie Gabriele Senn