Erwin Wurm

Erwin Wurm has long numbered among the global stars of contemporary art. And now, this exceptional Austrian artist’s drawings from recent years—drawings that exhibit great thematic and technical diversity—are the focus of an exhibition at the Albertina Museum. Whether he’s at home or traveling: Erwin Wurm take time to draw nearly every day. He does so on whatever paper happens to be at hand and in various qualities and formats, using pencils, colored pencils, ballpoint pens, or even watercolors. These drawings represent reflections and commentaries on the world and serve to record the artist's ideas, thus encompassing his entire creative cosmos.

Thematically, they are not unlike a diary, with his self-portraits being interspersed above all with images of the people with whom Wurm comes into contact, including artist-friends as well as members of his family. Furthermore, his works on paper also deal with well-known personalities from politics, art history, and cultural history in general. But despite their great thematic and technical diversity, all of Erwin Wurm’s drawings have in common his bitingly humorous view of the world and its human inhabitants, complete with all their inadequacies, as well as his keen sense of situational comedy and precarious moments.

The exhibition is on view from 21 November 2018 till 10 February 2019.