VIENNA.- To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Fritz Wotruba’s death, the Belvedere is presenting a comprehensive exhibition that, for the first time, highlights the international reach of the Austrian sculptor’s career. The exhibition focuses on Wotruba’s global exhibition activities, his artistic network, and the reception of his work, placing these in dialogue with sculptures by significant contemporaries, including Alberto Giacometti, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, and Alicia Penalba. On this context, Wotruba emerges as a central voice in the postwar discourse on the depiction of the human being.

General Director Stella Rollig notes: Fritz Wotruba was more than just an Austrian phenomenon – his voice commanded respect in Europe and beyond. With this exhibition, we are honoring not only his singular sculptural presence but also his role as a cultural actor with a visionary commitment to art, education, and society.

Fritz Wotruba is regarded as one of the most influential figures in Austrian art since 1945. The human figure remained central to his sculptural work, which he increasingly abstracted and reduced to monumental blocks or cylindrical forms – yet never lost its connection to anthropomorphic origins. He thought of his art as a humanistic counterpoint to the devastation of war. Even in the face of the collapse of civilization during the Second World War, the human being remained the central pillar of Wotruba’s artistic work: it stands at the beginning and will stand at the end (Wotruba, 1959).

Wotruba is considered one of Austria's most important sculptors. His artistic style, defined by the interplay between figuration and abstraction, was unique and influential in its time. He introduced Austrian sculpture to International Modernism and created a body of work that remains relevant today, as noted by Gabriele Stöger-Spevak, the curator who has overseen the Wotruba estate since 1995.

Curator Verena Gamper adds: His work has been exhibited and critically engaged with on an international scale: at documenta in Kassel, at numerous biennales and expos, and in exhibitions that addressed pressing issues, such as the legendary 1959 show New Images of Man at the MoMA in New York. The dialogues sparked by the current exhibition between Wotruba and his contemporaries shed light on both the broader discourse surrounding the sculptural representation of the human figure after 1945 and Wotruba's distinct voice within this conversation.

THE EXHIBITION

Following Fritz Wotruba’s death in 1975, his artistic presence dimmed – partly because the concept of sculpture since the 1960s had expanded, and the medium increasingly embraced performative, installation-based, and process-oriented forms. The exhibition at the Belvedere 21 provides a fresh impetus for the international reception of Wotruba’s oeuvre by placing the artist in a global dialogue with a generation of sculptors who centered their practice on reflecting on the human condition. The exhibition demonstrates that Wotruba, the Austrian sculptor par excellence, was by no means a local phenomenon. It was primarily his mastery of stone that earned him early and significant international acclaim, establishing him as an important voice in the postwar discourse on sculpture.

Featuring over forty sculptures by Fritz Wotruba, shown alongside works by international artists who shared his artistic path, the exhibition offers a fresh perspective on postwar Modernist sculpture. Central to the presentation is a broad selection of Wotruba’s large-scale works – from the Belvedere’s collection and international loans – dating from 1928 to 1974. These are complemented by fifteen sculptures by artists who were either friends, collaborators, or fellow exhibitors on the international stage. The conversations between Wotruba’s works and those of Kenneth Armitage, César, Lynn Chadwick, Alberto Giacometti, Barbara Hepworth, Henri Laurens, Jacques Lipchitz, Aristide Maillol, Marino Marini, Henry Moore, Louise Nevelson, Isamu Noguchi, Eduardo Paolozzi, Alicia Penalba, and Germaine Richier bring these historical encounters to life. They highlight the broader international context and underscore the distinctiveness of Wotruba’s sculptural language.