Curt Stenvert

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Curt Stenvert (born September 7, 1920 in Vienna as Kurt Steinwendner; † March 3, 1992 in Cologne ) was an Austrian painter , filmmaker , photographer and object artist . He is considered one of the most important artists of the Viennese post-war avant-garde .

Life

Kurt Steinwendner, officially Curt Stenvert from 1969, was born in Vienna as the son of the iron turner Karl Steinwendner and his wife Maria (née Theimer) . The mother died in 1926 and Stenvert's father shortly afterwards married Marie Franziska Zaza, who lived in Vienna. Following training as a sales assistant to the book sales team, Stenvert was a candidate for an order with the Salvatorians in 1936 . Two years later he left the church and married Valentine Funk , who was five years his senior, from Moscow . After the National Socialists seized power , Stenvert's father-in-law was regularly summoned by the Gestapo and in 1939 Stenvert himself was called up for the Reich Labor Service .

In the summer semester of 1942/43 Stenvert was accepted into the general master class for painting with Karl Sterrer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna , but had to interrupt his training several times after being drafted into the German armed forces. Between 1945 and 1949 he completed the master class for painting with Albert Paris Gütersloh , studied sculpture for one semester with Fritz Wotruba and then began studying theater and film studies with Josef Gregor and Vagn Börge at the University of Vienna in 1949 .

In 1936 he got to know Ernst Fuchs , and in the class of Gütersloh Erich Bauer, Wolfgang Hutter , Fritz Jaschka and Anton Lehmden , who later became friends of the “Vienna School of Fantastic Realism”. In 1946 Stenvert was a founding member of the Art Club in Vienna , a pool of avant-garde post-war artists. His work in the 1940s is heavily influenced by Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró . At first under the influence of surrealism and the art of the dreamers, from 1946 Stenvert fascinated the "eager experimenter" above all the question of the possibilities of representing movement. Inspired by phase photography, the first large movement pictures were created in 1947, in which Stenvert combined elements of futurism , constructivism and cubism . It was through dealing with the subject of movement that Stenvert came to film in the 1950s.

In the fall of 1949, Stenvert first became the second architect for the film One, Two, Three - Out! engaged with Hans Moser , in which the sculpture violin player was shown in four phases of movement . Stenvert did pioneering cinematic work as a director with Der Rabe , the first Austrian avant-garde film of the post-war period, which he made in 1951 together with the psychologist and photographer Wolfgang Kudrnofsky . Stenvert's first full-length feature film Viennese women in the shadow of the big city was made between 1951 and 1952 and is a social study of the life of Viennese brick workers, “Strizis” and prostitutes. His disillusioning portrayal of urban fringe milieus, which is in conscious contrast to the idyll and sentimentality of post-war cinema at home, sparked “a storm of indignation”. Stenvert received positive reviews mainly from abroad. The Hamburger Echo of January 12, 1954 wrote: “The cinematic form of this film is so extraordinarily skillful that one would like to hand the director half a dozen Oskars. Three cheers for the cinematographic design of this bitter report. You want to run (in all styles) to see this Viennese wonder. "

For the crime film Flucht ins Schilf (1953), Stenvert took the Italian neorealists as a model: “He puts professional actors like Maria Eis or Karlheinz Böhm at the side, preferably puts the carefully selected original locations into the picture and cuts the linear narrative form in favor an episodic or fragmentary representation ”. Escape into the reeds is based on the note on a true murder case at Lake Neusiedl . The film was sold in 14 countries within a year. The New York Times described it as “the most promising Austrian film on the international market after the World War”.

In July 1957 Stenvert married the actress Antonia Mittrowsky. She subsequently appeared in several films as the leading actress and became a partner in Steinwendner-Film-Produktion GesmbH in Vienna, which was founded in 1957. In 1961 their son Kurt was born.

In parallel to his work as a filmmaker, Curt Stenvert began to devote himself to object art from 1962. The picture boxes that he describes as “human situations” document his engagement with contemporary issues such as consumer behavior, politics, technology, and the timeless basic conditions of human existence, which he staged in showcases like on a small stage. At first he worked with everyday objects, processed waste and flea market finds or created familiar objects that he placed in unfamiliar contexts for his installations. His aim was to alienate, ironic and stimulate the viewer to new perspectives and insights. Stenvert got the idea for this while working as a filmmaker. Props and backdrops, which only play a subordinate dramaturgical role in his films, become the central artistic means of expression in the image and object montages.

In 1967 Stenvert completed two central works. On the one hand, the Stalingrad object consisting of three showcases - the profitability calculation of a tyrant murder . The oversized installation was shown in 1967/68 in the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris and in the Musée National d'Art Moderne Paris and is now owned by the Army History Museum in Vienna. On the other hand, Stenvert was commissioned with a sculptural work for the world exhibition in Montréal , the Expo 67 , to mediate the Austrian steel production. Stenvert created a seven-meter-high and twelve-ton sculpture that could be used to access information in eight different languages. The two objects as well as the paintings meet Stenvert's requirements for the “functional art” he developed himself. Art is not an end in itself, but as a source of knowledge, strength and energy it has to provide a benefit for society.

At the beginning of the 1970s, Stenvert began to paint more intensively. In 1971 the manifesto for bio-cybernetic painting was created, in which he further developed the concept of functional art and “life-logic humanitas”. In order to increase the effect of his moving pictures, Stenvert relied on a decorative flatness in the representation from the 1970s, which he combined with a broad, luminous color palette and gold backgrounds.

In 1970 Curt Stenvert received a lectureship for object art at the State University of Fine Arts in Kassel and at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe . His work has been shown in extensive solo exhibitions at the Frans Hals Museum and the Museum voor Moderne Kunst. Stenvert's first and only extensive museum exhibition in Vienna followed in 1975 in the Austrian Gallery Belvedere with over 80 works on display in the premises of the Upper Belvedere.

In 1977 the family first moved to Mannheim and two years later to Cologne . Stenvert rented a warehouse there, where he worked artistically until his death. In the early autumn of 1977, Stenvert suffered a heart attack. The artist was therefore not on site during the preparations for the first comprehensive retrospective outside Austria, which took place in the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg and where numerous works from all creative periods were shown. In 1991 he received the Silver Medal of Honor from the City of Vienna . The artist died on March 3, 1992 after a long illness in Cologne.

In Cologne-Lövenich , where he lived for a long time, the Curt-Stenvert-Bogen is named after him.

Movies

  • The Raven. 1951, experimental film, 13 minutes, screenplay and director: Kurt Steinwendner, production: Avantgardstudio der Schönbrunnfilm Wien, world sales: Sascha-Film Wien, world premiere: May 1951 at the Forum Kino in Vienna, film festival: Venice Biennale 1951 (diploma), 5th international Edinburgh Film Festival (Diploma),
  • Viennese women in the shadow of the big city. 1951/52, feature film, 83 minutes, screenplay and director: Kurt Steinwendner, production: Schönbrunnfilm Wien, world sales: Sascha-Film Wien, world premiere: February 1952 at the Haydn cinema in Vienna.
  • Escape into the reeds. 1953, feature film, 85 minutes, screenplay and director: Kurt Steinwendner, production: Hoela-Film Wien. World sales: Sascha-Film Vienna. World premiere: March 1953 in the Künstlerhaus cinema in Vienna.
  • Giant and girl. 1955, experimental film, 16 minutes, screenplay and director: Kurt Steinwendner, production: Hoela-Film Wien, world sales: Jupiter-Film, film festival: Venice Biennale 1955 (diploma), world premiere: Venice 1955.
  • Alfred Kubin - Adventure of a Drawing Pen. 1956, documentary with Alfred Kubin, 31 minutes, screenplay and director: Kurt Steinwendner, production: Hoela-Film Wien.
  • Municipality of Vienna. 1957, 18 short films: The Walk, The Flowerbed, The Conscience, The Millionaire, Got Money For That, etc.
  • Impressionists. 1958, documentary, 13 minutes, director: Kurt Steinwendner, production: Art-Film Produktions GmbH.
  • The ball and the person. 1959, educational film, director: Kurt Steinwendner, production: Kurt Steinwendner Filmproduktion Ges. Mb H. Vienna, award: Austrian State Prize.
  • Sheet metal production center VÖEST. 1960, industrial film, 14 minutes. Director: Kurst Steinwendner, Production: Kurt Steinwendner Filmproduktions GmbH Vienna.
  • Venice. 1961, experimental film, 11 minutes, director: Kurt Steinwendner, Film Festival: 12th International Film Festival in Berlin (Silver Bear).
  • Situation 1964 - A film about Franz Schubert. 1963, music film, 31 minutes, director: Kurt Steinwendner.
  • Advance into no man's land. 1970, documentary with Arnulf Rainer, HC Artmann and Wieland Schmied, director: Curt Stenvert.

Literature (selection)

Own works

  • Curt Stenvert: The functional art of the 21st century or the programming of knowledge and experience processes. Munich 1968.
  • Curt Stenvert: Curt Stenvert. Kind of a biography. 1953-1991. Volume 1–5, Cologne 1985, 1989, 1986, 1989, 1991.
  • Curt Stenvert: Curt Stenvert. Theoretical and polemical writings on the functional art of the 21st century. Volume 1–2, Cologne 1989, 1990.

Exhibition catalogs

  • Kurt Steinwendner shows assemblies. Wiener Künstlerhaus, Vienna 1963.
  • Curt Stenvert. Galerie Le Zodiaque, Brussels 1966.
  • Curt Stenvert. The functional art of the 21st century. Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum of the City of Duisburg, Duisburg 1979.
  • Curt Stenvert. Women - love - death. ed. by Reinhold Mißelbeck , Städtische Galerie Erlangen, Heidelberg 1997.
  • Curt Stenvert - Neodadapop. ed. by Husslein-Arco, Agnes and Krejci, Harald, exhib.-cat. Belvedere, Vienna 2011.

Further literature

  • Gabriele Bruns: Artist portrait: Curt Stenvert, in Zs. "Vernissage Rheinland" H. 1, Heidelberg 2004, ISSN  1434-5986 pp. 60–65.
  • Dorothea Eimert : Curt Stenvert. Recklinghausen 1986.
  • Carola Giedion Welcker: About the sculptures by Kurt Steinwendner. In: WERK. Swiss monthly for architecture, art and the arts and crafts , vol. 35, issue 12, Zurich 1948.
  • Jürgen Hein (Ed.): Curt Stenvert. Poems from Vienna and other texts. Edition Milo, Volume 12, edited by Helmut A. Niederle, Vienna 2008.
  • Viktor Matejka: The Viennese outsiders Hundertwasser and Stenvert. In: Zs. Diary , vol. 20, no. 3, Vienna 1965.
  • Lukas Maurer: Kurt Steinwendner: The other filmmaker. In: Mitteilungen des Filmarchiv Austria , 05/06, Vienna 2005, pp. 12-18.
  • Marzio Pinottini: Curt Stenvert or of allegory. ed. by Ezio Gribaudo, Turin 1975.
  • Virtus Schade (Red.): Art. Special number from Curt Stenvert. Vol. 16, No. 2, Odense 1969 (in Danish).
  • Sigrid Voraberger: The filmmaker Kurt Steinwendner (Curt Stenvert). With special consideration of the films Der Rabe, Wienerinnen and Flucht ins Schilf (Diploma thesis on Mag. Phil.) University of Vienna 1998 (typescript).
  • Johann Werfring: Profitability of a tyrannicide In: "Wiener Zeitung" of September 24, 2005, p. 15.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johann Muschik: The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism. Munich 1974, p. 14.
  2. ^ Curt Stenvert: The language of things. In: Magazin Kunst, Mainz 2/1976.
  3. ↑ Curt Stenvert: From the spatial perspective to the process perspective or bio-cybernetic painting of functional art of the 21st century. Manuscript from December 12, 1984, quoted from: Dorothea Eimer: Curt Stenvert, Recklinghausen 1986, p. 18.
personal data
SURNAME Stenvert, Curt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steinwendner, Kurt (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian artist
DATE OF BIRTH September 7, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 1992
Place of death Cologne