GIRONCOLI: CONTEXT
ANDRE | BACON | BARNEY | BEUYS | BOURGEOIS |
BRUS | KLAUKE | NAUMAN | SCHWARZKOGLER | WEST
Orangery
12 July to 27 October 2013
Bruno Gironcoli
Large Brass Figure, 1970-71
Brass, marble, fabric
ca. 300 x 300 x 250 cm
© Courtesy Galerie Hofstätter, Vienna
Photo: © Gregor Titze, Belvedere, Vienna
GIRONCOLI: CONTEXT
ANDRE | BACON | BARNEY | BEUYS | BOURGEOIS | BRUS |
KLAUKE | NAUMAN | SCHWARZKOGLER | WEST
Presenting Gironcoli: Context over the summer of 2013, the Belvedere devotes an
exhibition to the great Austrian sculptor Bruno Gironcoli that is the first to place his
works within a network of relevant modern and more recent approaches, thereby
honouring the œuvre of one of the major exponents of contemporary sculpture. Three
years after his death and sixteen years after his last major one-man show at the Vienna
Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art (1997), the Belvedere has undertaken the
task of reviewing Gironcoli’s work in an exhibition that extensively highlights his early
output and juxtaposes his art with that of prominent protagonists of both national and
international contemporary sculpture. Never before has there been a show to present
this exceptional artist as part of an international movement that began redefining art in
the 1960s by breaking up the confines of traditional genres and questioning hitherto
valid norms. Moreover, the exhibition elucidates an essential aspect of art production
during the 1960s and 1970s, when the genre of sculpture opened up to such new media
as photography, film, and performance.
Contextualization with works by major exponents of three-dimensional art
In spite of several internationally recognized monographic exhibitions in Austria and abroad,
the reception of Bruno Gironcoli’s art has been dominated by the impression of an
unfathomable uniqueness that has made it difficult to objectively embed his work into the
major developments of twentieth-century sculpture. Based on references to and analogies
with works by other artists named by Gironcoli himself, Gironcoli: Context presents works by
ten exponents from various generations of artists, from the 1960s to the present: Carl Andre,
Francis Bacon, Matthew Barney, Joseph Beuys, Louise Bourgeois, Günter Brus, Jürgen Klauke,
Bruce Nauman, Rudolf Schwarzkogler, and Franz West. “The exhibition follows a fundamental
curatorial concept that has meanwhile become a principle at the Belvedere and 21er Haus. By
combining old and new, classical and contemporary approaches, and domestic and
international art production, we intend to reveal new aspects in both the one and the other
and create meaningful correlations. By juxtaposing works of art from different periods or
cultures, we wish to encourage new reflections on their thematic and formal similarities,”
Agnes Husslein-Arco, director of the Belvedere and 21er Haus, points out.
The exhibition presents outstanding works by the artist from 1965 to 1982: in search of a
modern human image, Gironcoli came to experiment with new industrial materials in his early
period, formulating his own concept of art and sculpture, which evolved from his early wire
figures to polyester objects and the so-called Environments. Yet at the same time, he gave a
lot of attention to what was going on in the contemporary art world. In his works, Gironcoli
concentrated on a limited number of themes. These constants, varying only by their degree of
emphasis and interplay, include the pairs of injury and torture, anxiety and sexuality, ritual and
obsession, and fetish and sex, as well as father, mother, and child. “The contextualization of
selected works by Gironcoli with those by national and international exponents of threedimensional and installation art of the past decades constitutes the point of departure for our
exhibition. It has been our goal to comprehend this sculptor, so singular in his artistic practice
and seemingly so mysterious, in his general art historical significance. Relationships are
established between both Gironcoli’s early room installations and his altar-like, cryptically
symbolic monumental sculptures on the one hand and selected works by a number of artists
on the other, so that Gironcoli himself and his exceptional position on the international scene
will be elucidated,” declares Bettina M. Busse, the exhibition’s curator.
Andre | Bacon | Barney | Beuys | Bourgeois | Brus | Klauke | Nauman | Schwarzkogler | West
Besides Viennese Actionism, Joseph Beuys’s social sculptures and performances were
important points of reference for the young Gironcoli. His early works reflect his preoccupation
with meaning-laden materials in the sense of Beuys and an influence of certain elements
borrowed from Viennese Actionism, such as ritual, sacrifice, the combination of materials, and
the transgression of limits. Works like Beuys’s performance Eurasian Staff, taking place at the
Galerie nächst St. Stephan in Vienna in 1967, and the Action photographs by
Rudolf Schwarzkogler, as well as the film by Günter Brus about Schwarzkogler’s 4th Action
come to mind here. Another theme of the 1960s was the exploration of surface and space,
which led Gironcoli to Carl Andre and Minimal Art. The transformation of a seemingly neutral
object into a sexually charged one is linked to the analysis of the polar sexuality of woman and
man, which runs through Gironcoli’s entire œuvre. The neutralization of the sexes is also a
central theme pursued by the German artist Jürgen Klauke. And in his surreal films,
Matthew Barney, the youngest artist represented in the exhibition, likewise deals with the
identity of the sexes, in a highly artificial language conceived by him.
Similar to Gironcoli, Francis Bacon and Bruce Nauman address the issue of the conditio
humana in an abstract, yet intensified manner. Francis Bacon figures in the exhibition with a
picture from his famous series Portraits of Henrietta Moraes. Hanging Carousel impressively
illustrates Bruce Nauman’s investigation into physical and psychological violence. What
Gironcoli shared with Louise Bourgeois, another maverick in the art world, was a lifelong
preoccupation with the theme of maternity. Akin to that of Gironcoli, her art relies on themes
strongly informed by personal experiences and emotions, the focus being on the human
image, the figure of the mother, and the act of giving birth. The show also presents early
Adaptives by Franz West, probably Gironcoli’s most well-known student, which are based on
works by Gironcoli and the Actionists.
A tensional relationship between sculptures and Baroque (garden) architecture
The show is complemented by a presentation in the Privy Garden of three casts dating from
the years 1984 to 2003 that are meant to continue the principle of contextualization out of
doors. They deal with a sculptor’s classical theme of the seated figure, which in the case of
Gironcoli is Murphy, inspired by Samuel Beckett’s figure of the same name. A tensional
relationship is thus created with the Baroque formal vocabulary of the Belvedere’s architecture
and garden, which adds a further possibility of drawing comparisons in terms of form and
theme.
The exhibition is accompanied by a publication paying tribute to the artist as a member of an
international movement that had sought to redefine art since the 1960s by crossing
boundaries and questioning hitherto valid norms. With contributions by Véronique Aichner,
Bettina M. Busse, Agnes Husslein-Arco, Harald Krejci, Georg Lechner, Beatriz Preciado,
Thomas D. Trummer, and Peter Weiermeier.
A PDF of the catalogue is available for download at:
www.belvedere.at/press (login: PR2013)
LIST OF ARTISTS
Gironcoli: Context
Andre | Bacon | Barney | Beuys | Bourgeois | Brus |
Klauke | Nauman | Schwarzkogler | West
Carl Andre
Francis Bacon
Matthew Barney
Joseph Beuys
Louise Bourgois
Günter Brus
Bruno Gironcoli
Jürgen Klauke
Bruce Nauman
Rudolf Schwarzkogler
Franz West
ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES
Gironcoli: Context
Andre | Bacon | Barney | Beuys | Bourgeois | Brus |
Klauke | Nauman | Schwarzkogler | West
BRUNO GIRONCOLI (b. 1936 in Villach; d. 2010 in Vienna) holds a unique position in the field
of international sculpture. The Austrian artist developed an extraordinarily distinctive formal
idiom, which spans from his early filigree wire objects to the massive sculptures he evolved in
the last two decades of his career. Alongside this he created an extensive œuvre of works on
paper and illustrations, which accompanied and shaped his development as a sculptor at all
times.
Inspired by the artistic œuvre of Alberto Giacometti, the principle that guided Gironcoli in the
early years of his career as a sculptor was the image of man. He experimented in depth with
an extensive range of materials and forms of representation, from early nude drawings to wire
sculptures to discovering of polyester. This modern material, which was industrially produced,
enabled him to formulate his idea of a contemporary image of man, which resulted in the
series Köpfe [Heads] in the mid-1960s. The three-dimensional pieces embody the idea of the
radically reduced portrait, something that Gironcoli had initially formulated by way of
illustration.
Towards the end of the 1960s he turned his focus on spatial installations, adding the
dimension of the human environment to his study of man. He no longer sought to render a
direct depiction of an individual but instead concentrated on creating fragments, snippets
from possible realities, entire scenarios in an effort to reflect the situation of this individual.
Beuys, who charged materials with particular meaning; provided inspiration to Bruno Gironcoli
as he developed own idiosyncratic iconography. Expansive, enigmatic and somewhat
threatening object installations composed of heterogeneous materials were the result; they
resembled remnants of a staged action, when offender and victim had already left the scene.
Religious and political associations can likewise be inferred, for example when particular
symbols, such as a Madonna or a column shaped like a spine, are presented side by side with
toilet pans or a swastika that is the wrong way around.
These environments soon transformed into his famous gigantic assemblage-like sculptures.
Among the reasons for their outsized dimension was that in 1977 Gironcoli succeeded
Fritz Wotruba as Professor of Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts – and now had a large studio at
his disposal.
The concept of the open sculpture, which Gironcoli had set his mind on evolving and
perfecting over the years, was now superseded by a different idea: His objects became
increasingly complex, and he employed a static principle in his sculptural work from now on.
The following decades witnessed the emergence of his monumental, altar-like expansive
sculptures. For these, he designed a range of different modules, which he kept recombining
into ever new sculptural arrangements. Classical themes of sculpture, such as the sitting
figure, likewise played a role here. Gironcoli created his so-called figure of Murphy, which he
named after a novel by Samuel Beckett. Fertility, giving birth, male – female –androgyny are
the revolving themes of his oeuvre.
Gironcoli first exhibited his works in 1967 in Klagenfurt in Galerie Hildebrand; one year later
was his first show in Vienna, at Galerie nächst St. Stephan. Other exhibitions followed:
Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts (1971), XI Bienal de São Paulo (1971), ICA London (1977),
Lenbachhaus München (1978), and Frankfurter Kunstverein (1981). In 1989 he participated in
Prospect 89 at the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. 1990 was the year of his much acclaimed solo
exhibition in Museum moderner Kunst / Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, which premiered his
new style in the form of gigantic assemblage-like sculptures. His 1997 solo exhibition in
Vienna’s MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Arts was a demonstration
that Gironcoli had further refined his expansive sculptures and created a completely new
th
artistic idiom. In 2003 Gironcoli represented Austria at the 50 Biennale di Venezia and
participated in Biennale de Lyon. Works by Gironcoli were on show at Haus der Kunst, Munich,
in 2005, and in Palais de Tokyo, Paris, in 2007. In 2012 MAMCO Geneva devoted the first
major international solo show outside of Austria to the late Gironcoli, who died in 2010.
CARL ANDRE (b. 1935 in Quincy/USA) is one of the main representatives of US Minimal Art.
Having abandoned his Art studies and travelled Europe extensively, he came to New York in
1957, where he met Frank Stella shortly after his arrival. The two started working together in
Stella’s studio. Andre then worked as a conductor and brakeman on freight trains. During this
time he did not produce any sculptural works; even so he regarded this period as an important
experience that shaped his further artistic development. In his early sculptural work
Andre concentrated on spatial arrangements of lines or surfaces. The mid-1960s witnessed
his first distinctive pieces featuring rectangular panels made of different materials. In 1966 he
took part in a group exhibition in New York’s Dwan Gallery together with Ad Reinhardt,
Dan Flavin, Sol Le Witt, Donald Judd and others. In March 1969 Andre’s work featured in
Harald Szeemann’s exhibition Live in your head: When Attitudes become Form in Kunsthalle
Bern. He participated in the documenta in Kassel in 1968, 1977 and 1982.
FRANCIS BACON (b. 1909 in Dublin; d. 1992 in Madrid) assumes a central position in
th
20 -century figurative painting. He produced his first illustrations after visiting a Picasso
exhibition during a stint in Paris between 1926 and 1928. In the following years Bacon worked
as an interior decorator and furniture designer, before soon concentrating fully on his painting.
The depiction of the human body soon came to be his favorite means of expression in
exploring such topics as violence, destruction and the meaninglessness of human life. In
1950, Bacon started on his famous series of papal studies inspired by a portrait of Pope
Innocent X by Diego Velazquez. In 1954 (as well as in 1968, 1978, 1993, 1995 and 2005)
Bacon participated in the Venice Biennial, in 1957 (and in 1964, 1977 and 1992) in the
documenta in Kassel. In 1955 the London Institute of Contemporary Arts hosted Bacon’s first
retrospective, which was succeeded by several others, for example in 1962 (and 1986) in
London’s Tate Gallery, in 1963 in New York’s Guggenheim Museum, in 1986 in Berlin’s
National Gallery, and in 2013 in the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
MATTHEW BARNEY (b. 1967 in San Francisco) studied Art at Yale University/USA after
discontinuing his medical degree. Even in his very early works, he embraced a multitude of
different media using installation, environment, performance, illustration, film and video. In the
late 1980s he produced spatial installations and performances; in 1989 he completed his
degree and moved to New York. In the early 1990s Barney already had solo exhibitions in a
number of prestigious galleries and institutions, including the Barbara Gladstone Gallery,
New York and the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco. In 1992 he participated in the
documenta in Kassel, in 1993 he was represented at the Venice Biennial. His work typically
references such themes as biology, medicine, sexuality, sports and mythology; his most
famous output is the Creamaster Cycle, a series of five constituent films shown in
achronological order, which he produced between 1994 and 2002. In 2003 Barney was the
youngest artist ever to be offered a retrospective in New York’s Guggenheim Museum. In 2006
the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, showed Barney’s oeuvre together with works by
Joseph Beuys.
JOSEPH BEUYS (b. 1921 in Krefeld, d. 1986 in Düsseldorf) is considered a central figure in
th
20 -century art history. Shortly after World War II, having sustained a serious injury as a pilot in
1944, Beuys joined an artists’ association and embarked on a degree in Sculpture at the
Düsseldorf Art Academy, where he would also go on to work as a professor between 1961 and
1972. As an artist and teacher, Beuys distanced himself decidedly from the traditional concept
of sculpture; in 1963 he staged his first Fluxus performances at the Art Academy. In 1972 he
established the Organization for Direct Democracy through Referendum and welcomed
applicants who had been rejected by the Academy to his classes. In 1973 he founded the Free
International University for Creativity and Interdisciplinary Research. In 1978 Beuys accepted a
visiting professorship at Vienna’s University of Applied Arts, and in 1980 at Frankfurt’s
Städel School. He took part in the documenta in Kassel every single year between 1964 and
1982. Throughout his life Beuys always championed the idea of a social, extended definition of
art and pushed for artists to play a participatory role, shaping society and politics through their
work. Also related to these ideas, Beuys derived his theory of social sculpture from his belief
that Every Man is an Artist and is therefore able to use creativity to build the future social
order.
LOUISE BOURGEOIS (b. 1911 in Choisy-le-Roi, d. 2011 in New York) is one of the most
influential female protagonists of contemporary art on the international stage. Even during her
school years she worked as an illustrator in her parents’ tapestry restoration workshop; she
then went on to study at several art colleges, before coming into contact with the Surrealists
at André Breton’s gallery. In 1938 she married US art historian Robert Goldwater and
relocated to New York, where she soon became part of the local art scene. She started out
with painting as her initial medium, but soon switched to graphic and sculptural pieces,
working a variety of materials. By arranging her sculptures as items in context in a spatial
setting she developed a sense for installation, focusing increasingly on this medium in her
work. As of the 1960s she focused on sexuality, corporeality and gender identity as central
themes in her work, her own childhood serving as a major point of reference. In 1982,
New York’s Museum of Modern Art devoted a retrospective to her, the first ever retrospective
of a female artist’s oeuvre. This was followed by exhibitions at numerous venues, including the
Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover (1994), Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (1996), Kunsthalle Bielefeld
(1999 and 2006), Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2003), Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2006),
Tate London (2007), Fondation Beyeler, Riehen (2011), and Kunsthalle Hamburg (2012).
GÜNTER BRUS (b. 1938 in Ardning) is one of the most radical representatives of Viennese
Actionism. Following his graduation from Graz Art College Brus studied Graphic Art and
Painting at Vienna Academy of Applied Arts from 1958 to 1960. Already during this time he
turned his attention to international Informal art. In the early 1960s Brus came in contact with
Otto Muehl, Hermann Nitsch and Rudolf Schwarzkogler, they soon teamed up for first
activities as the Viennese Action Group. In 1964 Brus did his first performance, Ana. From the
outset, experiencing his own body was at the heart of his performances, while processes such
as self-painting, self-pleasuring and self-mutilation dominated later performances. His final
action Zerreissprobe [Acid test] was performed in 1970, after that Brus concentrated on
illustration and literature, his Bild-Dichtungen (illustrated poetry) marked the beginning of a
new artistic development. In the early 1970s he worked on joint projects together with
members of the Vienna Group, including Friedrich Achleitner, Gerhard Rühm and
Oswald Wiener. In 1972, 1977 and 1982 Günter Brus participated in the documenta in Kassel.
In 1996 Brus was honored with the Great Austrian State Award of Visual Art for his lifetime
achievements. In 2008 the Bruseum art space, which is dedicated to Brus’ work, was
inaugurated under the aegis of the Neue Galerie Graz.
JÜRGEN KLAUKE (b. 1943 in Kliding nr. Cochem/Mosel) studied Graphic Design at Kölner
Werkschulen from 1964 until 1970. In his work, Klauke explored the role of the body in the
context of human identity, placing a central focus on gender issues. In performances and
photographic series Klauke choreographed the human body, quite often his own, as a
backdrop for his photographic sequences, liberating it from its mere role as instrument and
material. Since the 1970s Klauke’s works have regularly featured in both national and
international exhibitions. Shows include Hamburger Kunsthalle (1987 and 2002), Museum
Ludwig, Cologne (1987), ZKM/ Museum für Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe (2010), and Museum der
Moderne, Salzburg (2011). In 1977 and 1987 Klauke participated in the documenta in Kassel
and from 1993 until 2008 he held the Chair for Artistic Photography at Cologne’s Academy for
Media Arts.
BRUCE NAUMAN (b. 1941 in Fort Wayne/USA) Following his studies in Mathematics, Physics
and Art, in 1966 Bruce Nauman accepted a teaching position at the Art Institute in San
Francisco. At the same time he abandoned painting in favor of conceptual work in a variety of
media, such as film and video, sculpture, installation and performance. 1967 witnessed the
birth of his first neon piece, which would become his trademark. The role of the body as a
medium and its relationship with the space that surrounds it regularly formed the focal point of
his work, as did the physical and emotional perception of the object. Nauman has had solo
exhibitions and retrospectives in the most prestigious museums worldwide, including
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (1993), Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
(1997), Tate Gallery, London (2006), and the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2010).
Nauman also participated in the documenta in Kassel several times (1968, 1972, 1977, 1982,
1992) and represented his country at the Venice Biennial (1989, 1999, 2005, 2009). In 1999
he received the Golden Lion for his lifetime achievement.
RUDOLF SCHWARZKOGLER (b. 1940 in Vienna, d. 1969 in Vienna) spent some time studying
at the Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt and the Academy of Applied
Arts, Vienna, but did not complete his degree. Having been introduced to Hermann Nitsch in
1960, he soon came to participate as a protagonist or model in performances by Nitsch and
other Viennese Actionists, such as Otto Muehl. In the mid-1960s Schwarzkogler started
performing his own actions; Hochzeit [Wedding] was the title of the first. His actions, which
used photography as a medium of communication, were typically characterized by the artist’s
deep involvement with himself; there was no interaction with the audience. He performed a
total of six actions, all of them in 1965/66; after that Schwarzkogler switched to formulating
artistic concepts that were no longer performed. In 1970, following his death, the first
exhibition of action photographs and concepts was hosted in Galerie nächst St. Stephan,
Vienna. In 1972, there was a display of texts, sketches and photographs of his actions
between 1965 and 1969 at the documenta in Kassel.
FRANZ WEST (b. 1947 in Vienna, d. 2012 in Vienna) is one of Austria’s leading
representatives of contemporary art. From 1977 to 1982, West was a student of
Bruno Gironcoli at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. He devoted himself to the exploration of
the concept of sculpture from very early on. In the 1970s he designed his first Passstücke
[fitting pieces], as of 1987 he designed a series of very different items of seating furniture,
which were intended to stimulate interaction with the recipients. From 1992 until 1994 West
held a Chair at Frankfurt’s Städel School. In 1993 he designed the Austrian pavilion for the
Venice Biennial. In 1992 and 1997 his work was shown at the documenta in Kassel. West’s
artistic output was exhibited in exhibitions held at museums across the world, including the
Museum of Modern Art, New York (1997), the Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2002) and
Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2010). In 2011 West was honored with the Golden Lion at the
Venice Biennial for his lifetime achievement. The first posthumous exhibition will be was held
at the Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna in 2013.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Exhibition Title
Gironcoli: Context
Andre | Bacon | Barney | Beuys | Bourgeois | Brus |
Klauke | Nauman | Schwarzkogler | West
Exhibition Duration
12 July to 27 October 2013
Venue
Orangery
Exhibits
36
Artists
Carl Andre, Francis Bacon, Matthew Barney, Joseph Beuys,
Louise Bourgois, Günter Brus, Bruno Gironcoli, Jürgen Klauke,
Bruce Nauman, Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Franz West
Curator
Bettina M. Busse
Catalogue
Gironcoli: Context
Andre | Bacon | Barney | Beuys | Bourgeois | Brus |
Klauke | Nauman | Schwarzkogler | West
Editors: Agnes Husslein-Arco, Bettina M. Busse
Verlag für moderne Kunst Nürnberg, 220 pages
23 x 28.8 cm, softcover
ISBN: 978-3-902805-22-5, 36,- €
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