Kurt Hüpfner

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Kurt Hüpfner (born December 22, 1930 in Vienna ) is an Austrian artist.

Life

Kurt Hüpfner began training as a commercial artist at the Höhere Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna-Neubau in 1947 and completed it in 1950. His artistic development was closely linked to his intensive occupation with modern and contemporary art movements and had a lasting impact on Hüpfner in his constant search for his own form of artistic expression.

Hüpfner's artistic work remained hidden for a long time. In 2006 he took part in a group exhibition for the first time. In 2016 his first museum exhibition “Kurt Hüpfner. From the hidden ”in the former 21 building, now Belvedere 21 . The online catalog raisonné "Kurt Hüpfner" has been created in the Belvedere Research Center since 2016 and new works are continuously added.

Hüpfner lives and works in Vienna.

plant

Kurt Hüpfner's work is decisively shaped by childhood memories of the Nazi regime, the constant threat during the war and the post-war period. Kurt Hüpfner's oeuvre, which comprises over 3,100 works, includes sculptures, assemblages, collages, paintings, wall hangings, caricatures, graphic prints (screen printing), bundles, text images, as well as numerous drawings and graphic novels. Different genres of art merge and the artist combines drawings, paintings and objects into new installations or groups of works.

The central theme in Hüpfner's work is a world of premonition and prophecy. He calls these “omens”. Special things or people that the artist encounters are magically charged in his feelings and manifest the rule of an invisible force. Hüpfner's works often depict mythological or legendary beings, but he is also interested in literary, historical and political figures. The artist also repeatedly processes memories of war and terror or current political events.

For Kurt Hüpfner, drawings are always the starting point for his artistic work. Hüpfner's automatic drawing touches on the gestural-abstract side of informal art, without ever penetrating non-representationalism. Since the early 1980s, Hüpfner's painting has shown clear parallels to neo-expressionist and neo-symbolist tendencies, which in his case lead to a synthesis between the Italian movement of the Transavanguardia and the new, wild painting. Kurt Hüpfner's plastic works are mostly based on the systematic translation of a single drawing into three dimensions. It is due to this fact that the figures often have perspective distortions which have their origin in the drawing. The outer contour already laid out on the paper remains essential for the three-dimensional implementation.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

  • 2007: Sun sail gallery, Vienna
  • 2011: Galerie Dana Charkasi, Vienna
  • 2016: Belvedere21, Vienna
  • 2018: Galerie Ruberl, Vienna
  • 2019: Kunstraum im Kinsky, Vienna

Participation in exhibitions

  • 2006: Museumsquartier Vienna
  • 2007: Quartier 21 Museumsquartier Vienna
  • 2008: Galerie Altnöder, Salzburg, with Ernst Schmid
  • 2010: Galerie Altnöder, Salzburg
  • 2011: Künstlerhaus Klagenfurt
  • Altnöder Gallery, Salzburg
  • 2015: Belvedere21, Vienna

Works in collections

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hüpfner, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian artist
DATE OF BIRTH December 22, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna