JOANNIS AVRAMIDIS and RADEK KNAPP MEETS ALFRED KUBIN, at Leopold Museum until September 4th

JOANNIS AVRAMIDIS

19th May to 4th September 2017

Joannis Avramidis (1922–2016) is one of the most important protagonists of Austrian sculpture.A year after the artist’s death, the #leopoldmuseum presents the largest retrospective exhibition of his work to date in Austria. Avramidis’ oeuvre invariably revolved around the human form. Built from circular segments, he abstracted his figures and transformed them into unmistakable, intrinsically harmonious sculptures. Seeking a consolidation of the figural coupled with an abstractness of form, Avramidis oriented himself on Greek archaic and classical sculpture as well as on artists such as Hans von Marées, Constantin Brancusi and Wilhelm Lehmbruck. This led him to a highly autonomous style described by Werner Hofmann as “rhythm of severity”.

Curatores: Stephanie Damianitsch, Ivan Ristić

RADEK KNAPP MEETS ALFRED KUBIN

The Hour of Birth

7th July to 4th September 2017

Alfred Kubin’s (1877–1959) early oeuvre, which he created until around 1906, illustrates in an almost prophetic manner two extremes of the 20^th century: the effacement of the individual within the masses and, by contrast, the solitude of individuals thrown back onto themselves and unable to find their place in Modernity. In his phantasmagoric novel “The Other Side” published in 1909, years before the formation of modern dictatorships, the artist painted a vivid picture of the relationship between charismatic rulers and devout followers doomed to unsatisfactorily end in chaos. Thus, Kubin’s work has lost none of its relevance for the 21^st century. This is the first time since 2002 that the #leopoldmuseum, which houses the third-largest Kubin collection in the world, will present a high concentration of treasures from all periods of the artist’s oeuvre.

www.leopoldmuseum.org