Jakob Gasteiger. Post Radical Painting

The exhibition at the ALBERTINA MUSEUM presents a survey of all creative periods so far in the oeuvre of Jakob Gasteiger. This Austrian artist’s output is characterized by a special way of reflecting on the painting process and on painting as such: his works forgo depiction of anything that he has seen or that could be clearly perceived, being much rather dominated by an elementary formal language. The viewer’s attention is directed to colors, to the structural and textural aspects of lines and the resulting transitions between spaces. His paintings tell no stories and refer to nothing but their own selves, and they have nothing in common but there pure self-referentiality.

This minimalism, this tendency towards reduction without concrete depiction, raises many questions. And even so, the artist does successfully give rise to a special harmony between the dimensions. For decades, this high degree of aesthetic competency has made Jakob Gasteiger one of the Austria’s most important contemporary artists of international significance.

The exhibition is on view from 23 April until 22 August.