GROUP SHOW WITH XENIA HAUSNER
AUSTRIA-GERMANY PAINTING 1970 TO 2020
ALBERTINA MODERN, VIENNA, AUSTRIA
6 SEPTEMBER 2023 – 21 JANUARY 2024
As in football, so in art? No. Certainly not. The relationship between Germany and Austria in the visual arts is completely different from that in sport: there are no hard fronts, no competition, no winners and losers, no young and old. The autumn exhibition at ALBERTINA MODERN is dedicated to outstanding artists from both countries, who are linked by a long history. However, it does not thematise this history, but instead allows important positions in Albertina's collection, such as Maria Lassnig and Georg Baselitz, Arnulf Rainer and Gerhard Richter, Martha Jungwirth and Albert Oehlen, Xenia Hausner and Neo Rauch, Wolfgang Hollegha and Katharina Grosse to enter into a convincing dialogue.
Installation view by Robert Bodnar © courtesy of the artist and ALBERTINA, Wien – Familiensammlung Haselsteiner / Bildrecht Wien, 2023
A surprising pas de deux unfolds away from the principle of nationality, bringing the dance and playfulness of art to the fore. Both the German and the Austrian positions come into their own in their individuality. Together they develop a transformative power and triumph with an aesthetic of harmonies, tensions, and ruptures.