FRITZ PANZER / JOSEF BAUER

21.10.–22.12.2016

Critical conditions of the form

Using wire as his working material, Panzer creates his sculptures based on mundane everyday objects like a sink or a lorry. But it is not the minutely detailed copy of the objects that become visible in the room like a three-dimensional drawing; rather, the creation of a distinct form. Panzer refers to drawing as the genre that constitutes the form of his sculptures, thus triggering a crisis of the three-dimensional space. A crisis which has a greater effect on the viewers, because we are used to abstracting the three-dimensional space from drawings, whereas three-dimensional forms help us to grasp space. Due to the fragility of the sculptures, we perceive what is in front of us like an ephemeral memory, since in our thoughts and memories we usually are faced with rather vague notions of three-dimensional space. In his two-dimensional works, Panzer analyses the “critical conditions of form and space” by juxtaposing structure and form, sometimes even playing one off against the other. Panzer is not producing drafts or sketches of his works when he overlaps forms and experiments with transparency in his two-dimensional pieces and fathoms the critical moments in the genesis of the image space.

In his works Josef Bauer is always analysing the question of how we humans grasp the world and how we exalt ourselves. Inspired by approaches from the field of linguistics, he continually deals with the relationship between language and image. His three-dimensional constellations consisting of verbal slogans and images, sculptural gestures or everyday objects create a relational cosmos, which always revolves around the crisis of meaning and attribution, and thus also around how to explain art. To put it in Wittgenstein’s terms, his works can be viewed more as comments which make it seemingly impossible to attribute a definitive meaning to an individual object. Grasping and conceiving the world are pivotal moments in his word-image creations which are presented to the viewers as a kind of vocabulary and can also be interpreted as a “critical condition” of form due to their ambiguity.

Text: Harald Krejci / Translation: Mandana Taban


Fritz Panzer

1945 born in Judenburg, Styria, lives and works in Vienna.
Solo Exhibitions (Selection): 2014 Fritz Panzer, Krobath Wien. 2010 PASSAGEN 01 - Fritz Panzer, Stadtmuseum Graz. 2009 Fritz Panzer, Krobath Berlin. 2008 Doppelgänger, Kunsthaus Mürzzuschlag, Mürz. 2005 Das Dilemma der Dinge in Malerei, Zeichnung und Skulptur, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz.
Group Exhibitions (Selection): 2016 Fritz Panzer/Josef Bauer, Krobath Wien; Zeichnung in den Raum, Kunst im Traklhaus, Salzburg. 2015 Zeichnung ins Dreidimensionale, Musées d’Art Moderne, St. Etienne; Drawing Now - Albertina, Wien; Piano Pieces. Klaviere. Klänge. Kunst, Neue Residenz. Museum Salzburg. 2014 Ugo Rondinone. Künstler und Dichter, Sezession, Wien; Kunstgenuss Essen. Von der Linzer Torte bis zur Bosna, Nordico Stadtmuseum Linz.

Josef Bauer

1934 born in Wels, Upper Austria, lives and works in Linz and Gunskirchen, Upper Austria.
Solo Exhibitions (Selection): 2013 Josef Bauer - 1965 bis heute, Grazer Kunstverein, Graz. Josef Bauer, Museum Angerlehner, Thalheim bei Wels. 2008 Taktile Poesie, Galerie im Europahaus, Pilsen.
Group Exhibitions (Selection): 2016 Fritz Panzer/Josef Bauer, Krobath Wien; Die Sprache der Dinge, 21er Haus, Wien. 2015 Landschaft: Transformation einer Idee, Graz; Destination Wien, Kunsthalle, Wien. 2013 Die Sammlung #3, 21er Haus, Wien. 2012 Utopie Gesamtkunstwerk, 21er Haus, Wien. 2011 Das 20. Jhd. in Oberösterreich, Kultur und Kunstgeschichte, Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum, Linz.