75 years of Manfred Deix! Look forward to favorite motifs, bitter highlights and works by the enfant terrible of the caricature scene that have not been shown for a long time. Manfred Deix (1949 - 2016) would have celebrated his 75th birthday on February 22, 2024. To mark the anniversary, the Caricature Museum Krems is dedicating a special exhibition to the Austrian artist.
The all-rounder will never be forgotten
Graphic artist, cartoonist and poet: Manfred Deix can confidently be described as multi-talented. The Lower Austrian is best known for his bitterly wicked cartoons. Like no other, Deix knew how to look into the depths of the Austrian soul, shock with his art and shake up social taboos. His popularity is evidenced not only by numerous solo exhibitions and publications, but also by the term "Deix figure" in the Duden dictionary and the first Austrian animated film "ROTZBUB - der DEIX Film" (2021).
Manfred Deix, The Cat King, 1994 © Manfred Deix, Landessammlungen NÖ.
"The Cat King" finally back in the original and other bitterly wicked delicacies
With over 60 originals, the anniversary show will take you on a journey through Manfred Deix's favorite motifs and central themes. You will see highlights such as the "Cat King" Basil, who is being presented in his original form again after several years, or the well-known "Naked Dancer Fritzi Lichtermann". The box-shaped West Indian cube cat, the picture of dogs and their owners or the drawing of the Easter bunny give you an insight into Deix the animal lover. Various contemporaries such as painter Hermann Nitsch or politician Jörg Haider appear again and again in the caricaturist's work. The fact that the artist himself was a passionate smoker is revealed in several works in the form of so-called cameo appearances.
Illustrated poems illustrate Deix's literary talent in the exhibition. The exceptional talent continues to have an impact even after his early death in 2016. Excerpts from the first fully animated Austrian cinema film "ROTZBUB" and documentary material on the new takeover of "Luna Luna" - an amusement park with contemporary art, in which Deix was involved with other artists - bear witness to this.
February 17, 2024 until February 2, 2025
