The Belvedere Museum Presents Austrian Avant-Garde Artist Curt Stenvert

Written by Anton Ziegelmayer Tuesday, 01 May 2012 23:54

Vienna.- The Belvedere is proud to present " Curt Stenvert : NEODADAPOP", on view at the museum's Orangerie through January 15th 2012. The Austrian avant-gardist Curt Stenvert (1920–1992), who was born as Kurt Steinwendner, made his first appearance as a painter, before he gained international recognition with his films and, starting in 1962, with his object art. "NEODADAPOP" is the first show to present the artist’s complete oeuvre. During his studies under Albert Paris Gütersloh and Fritz Wotruba at the Vienna Academy , Stenvert primarily dealt with the themes of movement and perspective, which found their expression in sculptures made of aluminium and acrylic glass. His "Violinist in Four Phases of Movement" (1947) earned the founder member of the legendary Art Club admiration from renowned colleagues, including Marc Adrians: “Standing in front of it, one was simply astounded that it was possible to dissolve a sculpture into movement.”

Movement remained one of the central elements in Stenvert’s work and became a crucial motivation for his preoccupation with the medium of film. Stenvert’s early filmic works, such as the first Austrian experimental film 'Der Rabe [The Raven]' (1951), deal with the biological, psychological, sociological, and philosophical conditions of human existence. There followed numerous experimental, feature, and documentary films that received international awards. These films also led Stenvert to his unusual object assemblages, with which he attracted attention at the 33rd Biennale di Venezia in 1966 and subsequently in museum exhibitions in Italy, Sweden, and Germany. The Belvedere, which staged Stenvert’s first and hitherto only one-man show in Austria as early as 1975, is now presenting the first comprehensive retrospective of the artist’s oeuvre. Amidst objects, films, and paintings, the three-part work "Stalingrad" (1964–67) constitutes one of the exhibition’s highlights. Juxtapositions with examples by Marcel Duchamp , Richard Lindner , Wolf Vostell , Daniel Spoerri , and Arman are meant to illustrate Stenvert’s relationship to Neo-Surrealism, Pop Art , Neo-Dada, Fluxus , and Nouveau Réalisme.


The Belvedere Palaces, have harbored treasures of art ever since their beginnings, at first the collections of Prince Eugene and, from 1781, extensive parts of the imperial collection, which were also open to the public. Around 1900, since no measures were being taken to build the planned new museum for the state collection of contemporary art, Austrian artists were urging an improvised accommodation of works in the Lower Belvedere. In 1903, the Moderne Galerie was indeed opened there, thus laying the foundation for today’s collection. In 1923, the baroque museum was opened in the Lower Belvedere as the first part of the museum's “restructuring”. The Galerie des XIX Jahrhunderts (Gallery of the XIXth Century) was set up in 1924 in the Upper Belvedere, with works by international and Austrian artists, meanwhile the Moderne Galerie was accommodated in the Orangerie, where the monumental sculpture found an ideal setting in the adjacent large landscaped garden. During the National-Socialist regime the Moderne Galerie remained closed, which meant that the inventory of so-called "degenerate" works was untouched. Museum operations during the post-Second World War period have been characterized by numerous new acquisitions, extensions and modernization measures. From 1991 to 1996, the Upper Belvedere underwent general refurbishment. The Lower Belvedere and the Orangery are used as the Belvedere’s exhibition forum. Medieval at the Upper Belvedere: The Belvedere owns internationally outstanding works of Late Gothic sculpture and panel painting. They offer an overview of the major artistic developments in the International Style from around 1400 to the early sixteenth century. The Baroque Collection of the Belvedere left the Lower Belvedere in 2007 and the most important works of Austrian Baroque are now shown in the east wing of the Upper Belvedere. The 19th century collection encompasses a wide range of masterpieces, including classicism, romanticism and Biedermeier, realism and historicism, and the art of impressionism. Classicism and romanticism are pre-eminently represented in portraits and mood landscapes, especially by Caspar David Friedrich . Besides examples of Austrian mood impressionism, there is a remarkable and exclusive selection of international art with works by Auguste Renoir , Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet . Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.belvedere.at

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