Virtual 4: Konrad Winter - public
04. June - 31. July 2016

Blick in die Ausstellung
Dog, steel pipe sculpture, 450 x 500 x 220 cm, temporarily installed during the avantgarde festival "Sommerszene" in Salzburg,1995

< 1 /30 >

Blick in die Ausstellung

Virtual 4: Konrad Winter - public

With our "virtual" series we are able to show exhibitions not normally shown in a gallery. This is particularly the case in Konrad Winter's exhibition "public". That is because it showcases artwork that he has made for or displayed in public spaces. Instead of having to travel from Salzburg to Freiburg and from there to cities in Northern Germany his projects can be seen compiled here.

Commissioned work is created under different circumstances than non-commissioned work by an artist. Architecture and space need to be taken into consideration, as well as visual axes and viewpoints. In addition, the ideas of those for whom the artwork is being made need to be taken into account - after all, the artwork will probably have impact on public perception or maybe even convey a feeling of identification with a project or company.

Konrad Winter has different series of works. His best known series is no doubt his "camouflaged landscapes". Instead of just camouflaging an object within a landscape, he camouflages in his paintings cities, parks and landscapes. Up close the viewer only sees amorphous colored shapes. Not until the viewer has backed away from the painting is he or she able to recognize the scene. This oscillation between abstraction and representation can be seen and read in the title of his biggest project so far made for the Pathological Institute of the University of Freiburg Medical Center: Cell Structure (Münsterplatz) - see pictures 13 - 17. Depending on where the viewer is standing, he or she might only see colorful "cell structures" and think that the artist found inspiration for his painting in some of the microscopic images made at the institute - if not for the hint in the title: "(Münsterplatz)".

"Abendgesellschafter" - a word coined by the artist that can be translated with "evening shareholder" - smile in bright yellow with black contour lines from the walls of the parking garage at Salzburg Central Station and show the drivers the way to a parking spot - see pictures 4 -7. The series "evening shareholders" refer to portraits of famous persons that can be seen in the evening during prime time. Are the shareholders sharing/spending time with the TV viewers in the evening - or are they socially important people who can be seen in the evening on TV? Oder are they shareholders in terms of a stock company? One possible answer to these questions came from the artist in 1996 in his installation "TV room" at the Galerie 5020 in Salzburg - see picture 2. In the room there is a television armchair, a side table, a floor lamp and a television. All of the furniture is encased in a uniform wood look ... rustic oak? On the wall are six colored wood panels in the size of a TV screen with scenes from films. One chair in front of the TV for one person - that's the whole room.

There is also a lightbox in the parking garage with a stamp print that belongs to Winter's series of work "Deutsche Aktien", in English "German stocks". From a distance this work looks like a mosaic - or like a pixeled photograph. The "pixels" are made of company logos from stock companies, such as Telekom, bayer, Deutsche Bank, VW or Daimler.

All three series have in common that they work with stored pictures in our collective memory. The media confront us with an ever growing flood of images. Views of cities, photographs of public figures and corporate logos of world-wide operating companies trigger a reaction of associations and recognition. Konrad Winter works with this strategy even in his youngest commissioned works for the Sparkassenakademie Stuttgart - even though the pool of images was smaller this time - see pictures 28 and 29 . In this case his paintings were based on the favorite photographs of the employees.