Kurt Hüpfner
Kurt Hüpfner (* 22. December 1930 in Vienna) is an Austrian artist.
Life[edit]
Kurt Hüpfner is growing up as the son of the model maker Hermann Hüpfner and the embroiderer Hermine Hüpfner in post-WWII Vienna. His childhood memories of the national-socialist regime and the constant threat during wartime leave a lasting impression on him and his art. Since his youth Hüpfner considers himself an outcast, a silent observer, who follows his interest in art and literature. In 1947 he starts his training as a graphic designer at the Höhere Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt, a former Viennese academy for graphic design. After his graduation in 1950 Hüpfner doesn’t start working in his profession due to his disdain for written characters. To make his living, he is working as a chauffeur and caricaturist.
His own artistic development is influenced by his intense engagement with modern and contemporary art forms. The exhibition „Pop etc.“ opening in 1964 in the “20er Haus” in Vienna has a lasting impression on the artist. In 1972 he marries his long-time partner Fritzi (Friederike) Gradl. After a failed attempt to display his art in a gallery in 1970 his work remains unknown for a long time. In 2006 he participates in a group exhibition. Ten years later, in November 2016 his first exhibition in a museum, in Belvedere 21 (formerly 21er Haus) „Kurt Hüpfner. Aus dem Verborgenen“[Kurt Hüpfner. Out of the shadows] is opening. In Belvedere since July 2016 an online
catalogue raisonné of Hüpfner’s work is being created and constantly updated. The artist is working and living in Vienna.
Hüpfner‘s art[edit]
His oeuvre consists of 3100 pieces: sculptures, assemblages, collages, paintings, wall hangings, caricatures, screen prints, an installation, convolutes, various drawings and graphic novels. The different genres often blend into each other. He is producing thousands of seemingly post-surrealistic drawings which serve as blueprints for later sculptures, assemblages and paintings. A central motive of his sculptures and paintings is prophecy and foretelling (“Omen”).
War and terror are reoccurring topics as well. Many of his small terracotta sculptures depict mythical creatures. Historical and political figures as well as literature characters form the rest of
his motives.
Drawings[edit]
Drawings are always the starting point of Hüpfner’s work. During the creation he is drawing from his experiences with écriture automatique, a technique he adapted from the surrealists in the beginning of the 1960ies. Hüpfner’s automatic drawing touches on the gestural-abstract side of informal art. The drawings are produced, while the artist is cancelling out his surroundings and focussing on the ‘present’, dominated by his unconscious. The results are more or less carved out cyphers, reminding the observer of the naive-emblematical autodidactic works of Art Brut. Most of the drawings later serve as sketches and studies for paintings, sculptures, assemblages or graphic novels and convolutes.
Paintings[edit]
Since the beginning of the 1980ies Hüpfner‘s paintings show similiarities with neoexpressionistic and neosymbolistic tendencies, forming a synthesis between the Italian Transvanguardia movement and the new savage painting style. He is using multiple colour layers for his emblematic and simplified portrayal of the material world.
Hüpfner’s painting is also closely connected to the manner of painting and design language of flemish expressionism in the 1920ies, especially with Constant Permeke, who is appreciated by Hüpfner. Beside him Hüpfner is also influenced widely by the art of Albin Egger Lienz. This kind of neoexpressionistic-primitive manner of painting still remains in Hüpfners art, even if he is occasionally picking up Pop Art and its colorful chromaticity.
Sculptures and Assemblages[edit]
Hüpfners plastic oeuvre is usually based on a systematic translation of a single drawing into a tridimensional object. Because of that fact it is that these figures often hold perspective-deformation in their execution, which has its origin in the drawing. The Contour is already created on the paper and forms the essence for the implementation. Hüpfner is selecting the material by reason of his financial possibilities, which also explains the use of located construction material and
trash in his artwork. A lot of sculptures exist of terracotta and gypsum, rarely of wood or Ytong. As a closing step before completion the sculptures are usually painted with acyl and finally Hüpfner is using oil for patina.
The artist has an accurate concept about how the observer should regard his artworks later. Over time Hüpfner develops installations and is combining objects into new artworks. These are connected for example with different paintings, sculptures and other items.
These numerous artworks can be summarized in different artwork groups. One of these groups of sculptures shows similarities to fetish and totem figures in ethnic cultures. Hüpfner is creating these figures out of waste products by reason of financial hardship. The sculptural series “Archäologische Zone” and “Gräberreihe” are depicting tridimensional scenic representations, which are populated by a small wooden figure, representing the artist himself. There are similarities to other sculptural miniatures like the serial “Denkmäler” depicting monuments for personalities or events. Beside these scenic sculptures there are also numerous of figures arising, which are either depicting people from daily life of the artist or tragic heroes from myth, religion or history.
Exhibitions[edit]
- 2007 Wien Kurt Hüpfner. Einmalige Ausstellung des gesamten Lebenswerkes Galerie Sonnensegel, 12. April 2007 – 26. April 2007
- 2007 Wien Kunst von Innen Q 21 Museumquartier, 14. Juni 2007 – 1. Juli 2007
- 2008 Salzburg Kurt Hüpfner, Ernst Schmid – von innen Galerie Altnöder, 10. April 2008 – 24. Mai 2008
- 2008 Salzburg klein + fein Galerie Altnöder, 12. November 2008 – 3. Januar 2009
- 2010 Salzburg Der Hofmaler. Eine Hommage an Josef Karl Rädler Galerie Altnöder, 25. Juli 2010 – 11. September 2010
- 2011 Klagenfurt Kunst aus einer anderen Wirklichkeit. Bilder von Außenseitern Künstlerhaus Klagenfurt, 1. Juli 2011 – 13. August 2011
- 2011 Salzburg querbeet Galerie Altnöder, 3. Juni 2011 – 9. Juli 2011
- 2011 Wien Kurt Hüpfner. Komödie des Todes Galerie Dana Charkasi, 2. März 2011 – 25. März 2011
- 2015 Wien Flirting with Strangers Belvedere, Wien, 9. September 2015 – 31. Januar 2016
- 2016 Wien Kurt Hüpfner. Aus dem Verborgenen Belvedere, Wien, 18. November 2016 – 29. Januar 2017
- 2017 Wien Art & Antique Hofburg Vienna Internationale Messe für Kunst und Antiquitäten, Hofburg Wien, Galerie Ruberl, 4. November 2017 – 12. November 2017
- 2018 Wien Kurt Hüpfner. Aus dem Verborgenen. Assemblagen, Skulpturen, Gemälde & Zeichnungen 1960 - 2017 Galerie Ruberl, 28. März 2018 – 19. Mai 2018
Literature[edit]
Peter Stasny: Kurt Hüpfner – Zeichnung, Plastik, Malerei, Salzburg 2012
ISBN 978-3-99014-041-3 Search this book on 
.
Weblinks[edit]
Monographe:
ISBN 978-3-99014-041-3
Youtube:
Catalogue raisonné:
Gallery Ruberl:
Sources[edit]
- Stasny, Peter; Hüpfner, Kurt (2012). Kurt Hüpfner: Zeichnung, Plastik, Malerei : Annäherungen an ein unbekanntes Werk (in German). Salzburg: Müry Salzmann. ISBN 9783990140413.CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link) Search this book on
References[edit]
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