CHRISTMAS EXHIBITION

It has been a tradition for 17 years: before Christmas, the Infeld House of Culture in Halbturn presents contemporary artists. Currently, oil and acrylic paintings, mixed media, watercolors and prints by the following artists are exhibited: 

Anton Lehmden

and his master students

Mo Häusler

Michael Hedwig

Anne Suttner

Savio Verra

They work in the same time period but embark on different paths, have positioned themselves and found their place in the artistic context.

Anton Lehmden (born 1929 in Neutra, Slovakia; studied at the Academy of Fine Arts with Albert Paris Gütersloh; lives and works in Castle Deutschkreutz, Burgenland)

Anton Lehmden is a co-founder of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism and the lord of Castle Deutschkreutz in the Burgenland region. The artist taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna from 1971 to 1997 and has been using his own castle complex for his art since the mid-1960s.

Anton Lehmden discovered who he was early in life: he loves and observes nature. His brush is in harmony with the sprouting earth and creates fabulous, dreamlike landscapes. The multi-winged flapping bird and the jumping fish are two figurative motifs that run through Lehmden's work continuously like a thread. Fish and bird symbolize the size of the world. They are unbound beings that can move to almost any point on earth.

Mo Häusler (born 1967 in St. Pölten, Lower Austria; studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, master class for painting Prof. Anton Lehmden; lives and works in Vienna)

With a confident brush stroke, Mo Häusler tells about life as everyone knows it: with longings, mistakes, loves and changes of the body, which ultimately end in its transience. "I'm interested in what lies beneath, to look under smooth surfaces - to look under the skin, to throw a glance behind the mask of the soul," said Häusler and uncovers the abysmal cleverly hidden under the fascinating surface. It dissects those moments in which the opaque skin becomes transparent and vision can penetrate into areas that should not actually be laid bare in the light, but better remains well hidden.

With an expressive language of forms, Mo Häusler creates images of thoughtfulness. But reflection and bustle of existence are incompatible, but thinking about the hustle and bustle of existence is another matter.

Michael Hedwig (born 1957 in Lienz, East Tyrol, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, master class for painting Prof. Anton Lehmden; lives and works in Vienna)

The theme of Michael Hedwig is man: with his body and soul, without face and gender, the man or woman of all times and cultures. "The human body emerges as the bearer of energies that, in conjunction with others, engenders those energetic and social patterns in which the soul experiences its realm of unfolding and movement. Together, the soul forces reflect and reinforce each other and find their changeful shape", says Hedwig.

His groups of people raise questions that cannot be answered without the viewer. One can often sense a sense of threat, of the transience of human life. However, a commonality of beliefs and attitudes is noticeable; also the common cult in religiosity - the mystical experience of commonality.

Even a tent becomes a place of protected communion with nature. This enables the people, who are exposed to the forces of nature in the Alps, to find shelter, security and togetherness in the tents.

Anne Suttner (born 1971 in Mödling, Lower Austria, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, master class for painting Prof. Anton Lehmden; lives and works in Vienna)

The "Star Wars" series has accompanied Anne Suttner since her childhood and is an important topic of her work. She remains constantly in love with figures, costumes and backdrops. 

Years after the first viewing of the saga, the fascination is not diminished. Anne Suttner likes it mainly because the future and the past are united - "Star Wars" is a science-fiction film, but costumes look like the "Lord of the Rings." In this fairy tale for adults, which addresses the timeless and exciting battle of good and evil, Anne Suttner keeps registering new things - thanks to the richness of detail and the many narrative strands.

The second subject area is devoted to music, specifically the appearance of the singer Zoe at Eurovision (2016). Anne Suttner seems to be fascinated by the stage event and tries to transcribe the magic of the performance onto the two-dimensional medium of the canvas, which has no soundtrack. She designs scenarios with the components of light and space. The pulsating music and the rhythm become components of reality.

Savio Verra (born 1969 in Nußdorf-Debant, East Tyrol; studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, master class for painting Prof. Anton Lehmden; lives and works in Gars am Kamp)

The relationship with the landscape of the Kamptal region, the fields and meadows exposed to the changing seasons, are a focal point in the work of the painter and sculptor Savio Verra. It tends to dissolve an approximate objectivity in which only the aforementioned idea of familiar landscape variables is used. Many works are constructed with repeated collaged elements, which support the constructive character of the pictorial theme.

The contrasting nude representation of the human body follows the landscape as a further motif focus of Savio Verra. It is a way of depicting the principle of landscape photography in a replicating way. Proportionally overlong body parts are summarized in outlined contours. The artist uses quick brush strokes. The goal is not the representation of an already closed unit, because this experience finds its continuation in the eyes of the beholder.