VIENNA.- The exhibition Visionary Spaces: Walter Pichler Meets Frederick Kiesler in Belvedere 21 highlights thematic similarities between the oeuvres of the two artists and sheds light on important aspects of their work. The display by Sonia Leimer fosters a dialog between the works of the two avant-garde artists who differed in terms of generation and discipline.

Belvedere General Director Stella Rollig comments: “In an age where history is all too often being forgotten, we need to revisit the avant-gardes of the 20th century and gauge how they can impact the present day. Frederick Kiesler and Walter Pichler demonstrate the freedom and boldness to think outside the box and personify the power and innovation that can be gained from overcoming conventions.”

Although artist-cum-architect Pichler was born almost 50 years after architect-cum-artist Kiesler and they lived on different continents, they did actually meet in person once, in 1963 in New York. This occurs at a time when Pichler is decisively stimulating an international debate on the future of construction and living, something that goes hand in hand with a critique of post-War functionalism. Though no details of the meeting have survived Pichler’s interest in Kiesler can be seen as representative of the interest of a younger generation that considers Kiesler a paramount example of the connection between art and architecture which they are so keen to achieve. Kiesler’s transdisciplinary methodology leads to him being rediscovered in the early 1960s and emerging as an important point of reference for the Austrian art and architecture scene.

Curator Verena Gamper takes this historical meeting of the two artists as the starting point to illustrate the points of contact and parallels between them – by means of key works provided by lenders from inside and outside Austria. In six chapters, the exhibition opens up the “visionary spaces” that can be found in the examination of utopian architecture, principles of organic form, perception, spirituality, performativity, and design, and highlights their potential relevance for current issues.

“Kiesler’s constant transgression of the boundaries between architecture, sculpture and painting are reflected in Pichler’s refusal to accept a division between architecture and sculpture. Both artists placed human beings and their needs at the center of their reflections on space,” explains Verena Gamper.

Yet however different the oeuvres of these two avant-garde artists might be, both men took their cue from issues relating to human beings and the spaces we inhabit. In addition, their visionary sculptural ideas are based on the conviction that creative action is only possible in the freedom of interdisciplinary thinking and creating.

Realized by artist Sonia Leimer (born 1977), the exhibition design takes into account the significance Walter Pichler and Frederick Kiesler attached to the presentation of their works. For the juxtaposition of the two oeuvres in Belvedere 21 Leimer has adapted selected works of her own, which are situated at the interface of sculptural object and architectural setting. In doing so she effectively takes a contemporary perspective and reformulates the question raised by Kiesler and Pichler about the validity of the boundaries between architecture and sculpture.

An exhibition by Belvedere, Vienna, in collaboration with Kunstmuseen Krefeld.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König. With essays by Juliette Desorgues, Verena Gamper, Almut Grunewald, Michael Krajewski, Harald Krejci, and Bart Lootsma highlighting the points of contact between the oeuvres of Walter Pichler and Frederick Kiesler from the perspective of art history and cultural history as well as from a biographical vantage point.