international group-exhibition
ballet concrete
John Carter (UK), Roland Goeschl (AT), Karl Hikade (AT), Laszlo Otto (HU), Helga Philipp (AT), Sigurd Romzpa (DE), Leo Zogmayer (AT)
introductory words: Dr. Alfred J. Noll, lawyer & univ.-prof.
Exhibition: November 5, 2014 - January 9, 2015
Abstract thought is a discipline reserved exclusively for human beings. Universal systems of rules, such as mathematics, derive from this unique characteristic. These put us in a position to grasp even the universe itself. And would it not be profoundly human if we were to also conceive of works based on these non-objective mathematical principles: works removed from economic motives, serving only our psychic edification – concrete art, for example.
In the exhibition ballet concrete, zs art shows a cross section of concrete contemporary art. The point of departure is provided by the sculptor Roland Goeschl, a student of Fritz Wotruba who emancipated himself from the latter’s figurative reproduction of reality and found his way to an independent development of a concrete, spatial formal idiom. The staging of space is also the concern of Karl Hikade – even in his two-dimensional works, which he often presents within elaborate framing constructions. Perfection is clearly of fundamental concern to concrete artists. In Sigurd Rompza’s three-dimensional spatial illusions, the sought-after precision is realised with an unsurpassable mastery. John Carter’s pictorial objects astonish viewers through their fascinating constructions, which – when we allow ourselves a look at the reverse side – reveal an uncompromising complexity. Leo Zogmayer is among the masters of Minimalism. He encapsulates a philosophical intellectual architecture within a sensual clarity that provides us with a view of the essential. In his canvasses, Laszlo Otto creates architectonic fireworks which – adhering to a dense rhythm – harmonise within a seemingly infinite tonality. Helga Philipp, the grande dame among Austrian constructivist artists, objectively and femininely rounds off this ballet concrete with her monochrome grids consisting of circles – ring segments and interstices ordered into a square.
A catalogue will be published to this exhibition.