The Austrian artist Erwin Bohatsch was surely one of the first to distance himself from the context of the so-called Neue Malerei (New Painting), a term coined in the 1980s to denote a new turn towards sensuality in Austrian painting and art in general. His colleagues more or less remained loyal to it until this day. Bohatsch, however, soon abandoned the initial narrative exuberance and the figurative representation of the remainders of archaic and seemingly remote mythologies, and entered an analytic examination of abstract painting, which led him to become one of the most radical local representatives of this genre.

A grappling with the bare essentials of painting marks Erwin Bohatsch’s latest works. Reduction of materials as well as of colour characterises his journey along a line, which divides paint jobs from artistic expression. Minimal colour (usually black) applied to a non-primed canvas creates the impression of a by-product or the preliminary. Only the cultural context of painting as an artistic genre converts what is seen into an engrossing attempt to pare down painting to the extent of rendering it a memory of itself. The remnants of painting on the canvas, which appear like the result of working with stencils, are evidence of the process-oriented nature of the medium, but also of the artist’s efforts to free it of the pathos that ultimately always leads to its demise.
In his new works, Erwin Bohatsch acts more radically than ever. The link between visual remnants and a cultural imprint that accepts them as part of a formal canon is especially perceptible here. The artist appears to want to let the audience know that, ultimately, it is also up to him to determine what can still be perceived as painting. Since every formal step on the canvas takes an exact consideration and reflection of the artist as a point of departure, Bohatsch’s approach is conceptual and at the same time of a high sensory perceptibility. The culinary aspect of painting is neither directly sought nor avoided at all costs. Yet the viewer can transform it from factual-technical to sensitive-aesthetic, depending on his or her visual conditioning.

Günther Holler-Schuster

Duration 26th of November – 19th of Dezember 2014

The West’s attention for Moroccan carpets began in the early 20^th century. Exhibitions in Munich and Paris presented handicrafts from the region, with carpets occupying a prominent role. At the same time, interest began to flare among numerous artists, such as Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, and Wassily Kandinsky, and architects, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as people of the Bauhaus school; among others, Marcel Breuer, Johannes Itten or Gunta Stölzl. The reciprocal influence between modern art and carpet culture is factual, yet it is of limited suitability as an explanation vis-à-vis the development of motifs in Moroccan carpets. Too remote are many of the production sites, where mostly Berber women pursued (and still pursue) this craft, to insinuate they might have been aware of Klee and the others. Even if, during the period of the French protectorate (1912-1955), efforts were made on an institutional level to invigorate and expand regional handicraft using design proposals by French artists.

One could, by all means, claim that the Moroccan rug is the modern art of carpets. Key markers of kinship could be detected in the two-dimensionality of image and carpet. Likewise, connections exist in the use of abstraction and the lack of perspective view. Combined with monochromacity, this creates the impression of reduction, dissolution of form and a completely new interpretation of a traditional canon. Crossed lines, chess-board formations, rectangles, diamonds, spots and monochrome areas, which at times tie in with traditional symbolism or simply emerge out of formal intentions, form a design vocabulary which can be traced back to the laws of perception, or the figure-ground relationship. Genuine artistry in oriental carpets strove for the perfection of colour handling in two dimensions, reaching its apex in Persian Safavid carpets of the 17^th century. If one were to follow the Western gaze, shaped as it is by modernism, Moroccan carpets would emerge as the most far-reaching dissolution or abstraction thereof. As such, the free forms and colour schemes only conditionally follow traditional formulations, instead conforming to a rather general stylistic vocabulary underpinned by globalisation.

For all that, one must not forget the carpet’s multi-functionality.

Modernity’s interest in these carpets appears to be a matter of course. Since the 1960s, there have been efforts, via concepts such as installations or performances, to expand the space and functions of artworks. Border expansions in relation to established categories, implemented by Western art, are also self-evident. Carpets may be places of visual curiosity, yet, at the same time, they also appear beyond visible paintings and tactile sculptures and built spaces. They are images to behold and tread on. They also fulfil, in the nomadic context, the purpose of covering and enfolding, thereby becoming multi-functional and multi-sensual.

With this show, Reinisch Contemporary presents examples from Azilal and Ourika, two Moroccan regions, whose carpets are especially far removed from traditional motif structures and at times attain a perplexing proximity to works of modern painting. It is therefore little wonder to find oneself recognising The Scream, by Edvard Munch, from the years 1893/1910, in one of the carpets shown. At least, it is such formal formations, which our Western awareness condenses into concrete images.

Günther Holler-Schuster

A summit of a very special kind: For the fifth time, the worlds of theatre and music converge with the realm of spectacular visual arts in the world renowned and revered festival city of Salzburg. It’s a small anniversary, a great honour – and an enormous motivation. In the magnificent, approximately 1000-year-old premises of the equally world-renowned Getreidegasse, we present a truly exceptional selection of MASTERPIECES OF ART in the TOP UP GALLERY, which has meanwhile become a hotspot. 

MASTERPIECES OF ART – 

Reinisch TopUp-Gallery

17/7 – 20/8 2023

Getreidegasse 12, 5020 Salzburg

Mo – Sa 11am – 7pm

So 11am – 1pm

PRESSE-INFOS

REINISCH ART CLUB: Wednesday, 26th of July 7pm

Maria Happel and Michael Martens will tell about “ihre Verhältnisse” and afterwards Tamara Mascara will hit the turntables!

Please

Due to the limited number of participants, registration is required!

Registration: Email or +4369912381422

REINISCH ART CLUB

Virtuos and congenial:  At the Reinisch ArtClub, this time two beloved crowd favourites and Burg stars will shine together. “Jedermann” Michael Maertens and Maria Happel will present excerpts from their programme “Über unsere Verhältnisse”, with which they also celebrate their 30-year friendship and collaboration – with literary high comedy. After all, Erich Kästner, Joachim Ringelnatz, Heinz Erhardt and Loriot all serve as “text suppliers”. 

And the cultural highlights are far from over. Afterwards, Tamara Mascara will supply us with hot beats at the DJ booth.

Due to the limited number of participants, registration is required!

Registration: Email or +4369912381422

Special exhibition at the St. Peter Stiftskulinarium:

CHRISTOPH SCHMIDBERGER – PINK SKY 

17. 07. to 20. 08. 2023

Artist Cocktail 23. 07., 3:30 p.m at Stiftskulinarium St. Peter.

Oil paintings and drawings by Christoph Schmidberger will be presented by Galerie Reinisch Contemporary in the refined ambience of the St. Peter Stiftskulinarium. The artist, who recently traded the glamorous world of Hollywood and the “endless summer” of California for the Alpine idyll of Upper Styrian solitude, 

presents us with a visual world that seems to have emerged from the hedonism of the 1990s.

Masterpieces of Art

They can neither talk nor sing, at least not according to our conventional criteria. Reciting, declaiming or playing music are foreign to them. Yet they possess their own unique and unmistakable language, often accompanied by tones and shades that receive worldwide acclaim and praise. Therein lies their expressive power and their intimacy with the overall composition.

The “Masterpieces of Art” we are showcasing this time tell viewers their own fascinating and perhaps even unsettling stories. They speak to us, every day anew, and in ever-changing ways. Therein lies one of their secrets. Anything is a matter of perspective, which has the power to transform the work of art and allow us to experience a marvellous transformation.

Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” will occupy a central position in this year’s Salzburg Festival. His visionary perspective on a desolate and completely unstable world also, with a slight variation, allows for a current question or statement to arise: “To see or not to see.” 

One should listen to the language of the images presented here, as they are much more than mere show-pieces. However, in this case seeing is believing. 

We would be delighted to welcome you and introduce you to our brilliant protagonists. Seeing and marvelling can serve as wonderful complements to one another. Often, a single glance is enough.

With this in mind, Helmut Reinisch and his lion-team extend a warm welcome to you.

This time around, Galerie Reinisch Contemporary is exhibiting carpets from Morocco whose design vocabulary appears highly archaic. The creative impulse which manifests itself differently in the functional and in the spiritual dates back to mankind’s earliest days. Signs and symbols infused with puzzling content can be found in cave drawings and on rock carvings, on household objects, weapons as well as on textiles.

There is no doubt that carpets are multifunctional products. In addition to their residential and decorative function as well as their spiritual significance, they are condensations of worldviews and faiths. Dependent on the varying fortunes of the weather and of good hunting, mainly nomadic societies were looking for a way to propitiate the circumstances in which they found themselves. Their continued existence and that of the entire clan depended on this. The work of peasants and craftsmen (weavers) was regarded in these cultures as “creation” that was based on the cosmic model. To a certain extent, the “Great Creation” was reflected at the human level. Like field cropping, weaving and tying follow a seasonal rhythm – the loom was set up in autumn, which marked the start of tillage. In winter, when plants grew below the soil, the fabric on the loom also “grew”. Removal of the fabric from the loom then occurred at the same time as the harvest in the fields. It is therefore clear that the connection between the earthly and the heavenly was the central effort in such spiritually permeated societies.

About 35,000 years before our era, carved symbols or successions of notches emerged in bones. On rocks, in caves and on objects we find spirals, rhombuses, straight lines and arrangements of dots. Even from the Eastern Alps (Val Camonica), such finds can be over 12,000 years old, while the sensational finds from the Anatolian Catalhöyük are about 10,000 years old. The graphisms (symbols between writing and pictures) which have been found extend to representational images of figures, animals or objects and had complex meanings that often can no longer be fully explained today. They could be hunting symbols, aids for incantation rituals, or part of sacred or magic rites. They always represent a connection between the real world of human life and a religious, cosmic superstructure. The real environment and world of objects are reflected in the symbols and patterns precisely as were the measures taken to propitiate higher powers.  The design vocabulary is never clear. Intermixtures and combinations of signs and symbols can always be detected due to processes that sometimes lasted for millennia. Religions such as Islam and Christianity are not the only sources of spiritual potentials. Most of the earlier pagan concepts have been preserved. Although they have lost their meanings today, they are integrated into the respective cultures as an integral part of collective communication. Hence the motif of the hand as a defensive symbol can already be found in cave paintings dating back to the earlier Stone Age but also attained pivotal significance in the religious symbolism of the Mediterranean. As the “Hand of Fatima”, the daughter of the Prophet, it is present in all the Islamic regions. In Morocco, it was painted with defensive and protective connotations on the walls and doors of the houses – Jews called them the “Hand of God” while eastern Christians referred to them as the “Hand of Mary”. The symbol of the hand, which brings happiness and blessings, is transformed into a five-pointed star in the Moroccan national flag and connects the hand with the linear symbol of the rhombus, which in turn can mean fertility and femininity as well as the mystical number five – four corner points and the imaginary centre. Above the centre, the axis that connects the earthly with the heavenly rises in a vertical direction.

Weaving is a spiritual act in the moment, while fabric on the other hand is basically an expression of the earthly. Its lines are literally laid along the horizontal axis. The vertical emerges in the religious-spiritual or imaginary context. Hence the object (carpet) receives essential aspects of its reality at the meta level.

What seems archaic and alien and therefore exotic and attractive to us today is part of a communication with the supernatural that has undergone transformation through the millennia –  it is the protocol of the effort made to propitiate the divine, as it were.

Günther Holler-Schuster

Opening on Friday, 14th of March 2025, 7 pm

Galerie Reinisch, Mainsquare Graz

Introduction: Manuela Schlossinger

Exhibition until 3rd of May 2025

(closed from 9/4-12/4 2025)

Arnulf Rainer is one of the outstanding protagonists of Austrian post-war art and, with an oeuvre spanning over six decades, occupies a central position in European art history. His work stands in the field of tension between gestural painting, performative body art and conceptual appropriation. As a leading representative of Austrian Art Informel, he developed a radical pictorial language characterized by the principle of overpainting – an artistic process that is to be understood not only as an act of destruction, but also as a strategy of new creation. Rainer’s overpaintings gained him international recognition as early as the 1950s. In particular, the reworking of photographs of his own body testifies to an intensive examination of forms of expression of the unconscious and the expansion of the mimetic potential of human gesture. These works, including the Face Farces and Body Poses, can be placed in an art-historical context influenced by surrealism, automatism and performative action art. With the later series of death masks and finger paintings, Rainer further radicalized his artistic methodology and, by the end of the 1980s, had created an uncompromisingly consistent oeuvre that oscillated between expressive gesture and conceptual reflection.

From the 1990s onwards, Rainer’s artistic interest increasingly shifted to art historical references, in particular to early Italian Renaissance painting and the works of the Dutch masters. By working on facsimile reproductions, he established a dialogical strategy that raised questions about originality, authorship and artistic appropriation. This debate culminated in the 2010s in the series of works Klimt & Schiele, Old Masters and Bondage, which are considered his late works. In these works, Rainer’s specific form of reworking images enters into a direct connection with art history, whereby his work can be read as a multi-layered reflection on the materiality and semantics of the image.

In addition to his unique works, printmaking has played a central role in his oeuvre since the late 1950s. The technique of etching in particular corresponded to his artistic concept, as it enabled him to create an expressive, destructive and at the same time structuring visual language through the excessive use of drypoint on copper plates. The gestural line dominant in graphic art – an essential characteristic of Art Informel – became the central means of expression in Rainer’s work: the successive condensation of strokes and overlays created complex textures that evoked associative formations such as landscapes, body fragments or archetypal signs. He often used existing images as a starting point, which he transferred into new contexts of meaning by accentuating, correcting and reworking them.

Rainer’s work occupies a unique position within the development of Austrian art. His artistic practice stands at the interface between painting, performance and conceptual art and combines the essential currents of the post-war avant-garde – from the gestural automatism of Art Informel to the radical body stagings of the Viennese Actionists and the reflexive appropriation of art-historical traditions. In this field of tension, Rainer’s work moves between the deconstruction of the concept of the image and the expansion of the expressive space of artistic gesture.

In this exhibition, Galerie Reinisch presents unique works and prints by Arnulf Rainer from over five decades, which impressively illustrate the central role of this artist within European art history.

Manuela Schlossinger

Opening on June 18th 2025, 6 PM

Reinisch Gallery, Hauptplatz 6, Graz

Introduction and Greeting: Manuela Schlossinger and Mathis Huber

Artists are present.

Exhibition in collaboration with STYRIARTE

Exhibition until July 12th 2025

SPACE//BODY//FORM

The exhibition SPACE//BODY//FORM brings together significant positions in contemporary art to explore the complex interplay of space, body, and form in painting and sculpture. The works of Stephan Balkenhol, Herbert Brandl, Katharina Grosse, Martin Kippenberger, Julian Khol, Hans Kupelwieser, Joseph Marsteurer, Fritz Panzer, Anton Petz, Karl Prantl, Thomas Stimm, Ai Weiwei, Sabine Wiedenhofer, Levente Szücs, Franz West, and Erwin Wurm pose not only formal questions but open up new realms of perception – physical, emotional, and political.

At the heart of the exhibition is the fusion and mutual permeation of two artistic genres: painting and sculpture. Where does surface end and volume begin? What role does the body play – as a real subject, as an object of representation, or as an imagined point of reference – in the tension between artwork and space? And what social, cultural, or political associations are tied to form?

The artists address these questions in highly individual ways. While Katharina Grosse occupies space with color and understands painting as a performative act, Stephan Balkenhol sculpts bodies from wood that, in their quiet presence, raise questions of individuality and temporality. Ai Weiwei uses sculptural forms as carriers of political messages, while Franz West redefines the relationship between artwork and viewer – as an interactive, physical experience.

The exhibition invites visitors to rethink the boundaries between inside and outside, surface and depth, representation and abstraction. Here, “form” becomes more than an aesthetic category – it becomes a bearer of meaning and social relevance. The relationship between artwork and space is also radically questioned: many of the works engage in a direct dialogue with the gallery’s architecture – they intervene, disrupt, and shift perspectives.

Ultimately, SPACE//BODY//FORM is also a reflection on the medium of exhibition itself. How can works be staged in a space without isolating or over-contextualizing them? How does space become a resonating body for bodies and forms, for materiality and idea?

This group exhibition is conceived as an open field, a space for thought and experience that invites the audience to engage actively with perception. Between physical presence and conceptual depth emerges a multifaceted panorama of artistic explorations of what surrounds, shapes – and moves us.

Manuela Schlossinger

Introduction by Günther Holler-Schuster, the artist is present.

DURATION: 15 th of september – 3rd of october 2015.

 Josef Schwaiger’s art takes place in the context of painting. So why not simply say that his art is painting?

The stereotypical images which we associate with painting today are far too well established. They remain backward-looking. Hence even today, with few exceptions, they still start and end up as colour slides before being placed on some wall or other. Abstract painting? Representational painting? In truth, the distinction hasn’t really mattered for a long time. Ultimately, today’s art has less to do with representation than it does with presentation. Neither is the function of the visual image taken into consideration in Schwaiger’s paintings. At the moment, painting does not serve as an instrument of illustration. Instead, it represents its own reality.

In this context, the oldest and probably most prominent visual medium is examined in relation to its actual existence. Which processes and what kind of material handling or presentations, etc., does this entail? The process of painting, a performative work process as it were yet at the same time a completely pragmatic one, is crucial in Schwaiger’s approach to painting. He analyses the medium with a deconstructive intention. Schwaiger proceeds from the material and ends up with the physical exertion of the artist and the viewing public. The latter is invited to participate in the creative act through his behaviour – it has no other option.

The concept Schwaiger uses is understandable, has certain rules and is based on experimental procedures. It harbours no secrets. The artist provides us with aspects of the physics of colour and related procedures just like an instruction manual. If one can actually speak of abstract images at all, they are ultimately the results of such experimental procedures. As a painter, therefore, Schwaiger is extremely topical and tries to give the medium a fresh impetus without abandoning it entirely.

The context of painting has broadened significantly over recent decades. Different developments in the visual media, on the one hand, and priorities in the field of art in general, such as the forcing of the performative and the participation of the viewing public, etc., have also ushered in changes and, in part, a paradigm shift in relation to painting. Josef Schwaiger’s approach to painting takes all this into account to a considerable degree.

Günther Holler-Schuster

Jospeh Marsteurer – The art of Fugue

Fugue, the musical composition principle of polyphony or the physical space between two parts, components or materials. Linguists know fugue as the place where the individual components of a compound come together.

Josef Marsteurer’s artistic work can be described as an explorative practice. This does not involve a negation of the visual appearance. As much as this art invokes the conceptual, it comes across as opulent and extremely visually attractive. One can imagine art as a system dominated by an interplay of individual phenomena. Since as far back as the Renaissance, art theory has attempted to comprehend this system and introduce concepts intended to capture it. Art can expose systems, exaggerate them, transform them into new models and, in doing so, challenge our perception of the world.

Marsteurer’s painting assumes that the brush stroke is the basic module of painting. It acts as the mediator between paint and motif and is usually the most faithful servant of representation or illusion. If made absolute and isolated, it becomes an image itself and functions in detail just like the system as a whole. Marsteurer has been producing brush strokes for years, documenting and archiving them and keeping them ready for later use. These fundamentals of painting, when applied to synthetic films, can be used at any time and in different places. They can be applied to any smooth surface – plates, films, tubes, etc. – which can then be used in new formal contexts.

The process that began within the painting process has thus entered the context of sculpture. Bending and deforming are methods of sculptors, not painters. In keeping with this, Josef Marsteurer is also presenting monumental sculptural structures this time that resemble vegetable forms but can also be defined as completely abstract three-dimensional paintings. The spaces in between – both in the conceptual world and in the concrete possibilities of materialisation – are of particular interest to the artist. In a manner of speaking, Marsteurer’s works offer models of painting theory that don’t have to be understood as such. After all, Bach’s fugues can be effective aesthetic experiences, without their complex theoretical structure coming to the fore as such.

Günther Holler-Schuster

Try out our 3D-Gallerytour of the exhibition of Joseph Marsteurer:

OPENING: Friday 16th of May, 6pm

Reinisch Gallery, Hauptplatz 6, 8010 Graz, Austria

INTRODUCTION: Günther Holler-Schuster
The artist is present.

Exhibition until 12th of June.

Painting plays a central role in the concept of modernism. What should it look like, what should it mean and how should it set itself apart from tradition? Its end is often inscribed in its development – but its declaration of death also expands the repertoire and introduces variants. Is painting immortal?

Modernism sees painting as “flatness” (Greenberg). Two-dimensionality is also the only condition that painting shares with no other artistic discipline. Since it therefore does not create illusions, does not feign three-dimensionality in the picture and is therefore not an argument for space, what possibilities does it have? In relation to painting, in addition to the question of the spatial, there is also the question of the surface. The minimum condition that a marked surface must have in order to be considered painting has also shifted in modernism. Today we know that this minimum condition can be radically suppressed before a painting ceases to be a painting.

Joseph Marsteurer seems to discuss both axioms in his work. He fulfils the minimum condition of surface design by reducing it to the brushstroke and making it autonomous. He achieves spatiality not through painterly illusion, but through physicality. The conquest of space by the paint literally takes place here in that the artist uses the brushstrokes autonomously – they thus become witnesses to open boundaries. The displaced spatiality, which is usually created by illusion, is compensated for by the three-dimensional brushstrokes. 

Today we have a situation in which painting and sculpture have come dramatically closer together and the differences are often no more than a theoretical game. Colored objects standing freely in space are anchored in both discourses. It is no longer decisive whether a work of art can be strictly categorized or whether it appears indeterminate.

Joseph Marsteurer’s analytical painting goes beyond the fundamental questions of modernism. Reduction and abstraction seem to be limited methodological processes. This art has set out to constantly expand and re-discuss these boundaries and objectives.

Günther Holler-Schuster