The Austrian artist Herwig Zens (1943-2019) had a formative influence on Austrian culture. As a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, he was responsible for training numerous generations of educators. In addition to his university career, Zens created an extensive and internationally acclaimed artistic oeuvre, for which he received numerous awards.
The exhibition honors the 80th birthday of the artist, who died in 2019, and opens up a cosmos of themes in paintings, drawings and prints that Zens consistently explored for decades. These include his etched diary, the Spanish painter Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), death and the composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828).
Herwig Zens © Herwig Zens
LONGEST PRINT IN THE WORLD
Zens broke records with his etched diary. This unique autobiographical testimony was created over a period of around 40 years. In 2005, the total print measured an impressive 40 meters. The 12-meter-long version of the Lower Austrian State Collections can be seen in the Landesgalerie Niederösterreich. For the diary, he created hundreds of copper plates, which he printed on long strips of paper. Boxes with drawings and notes, but also without content, represent the individual days.
GOYA, DEATH AND MUSIC
Zens not only created a considerable number of new interpretations of Goya's works. He also published his letters to the Spanish merchant and local politician Martín Zapater in German. The exhibition also sheds light on the themes of music and Greek mythology as well as the motif of death, which Zens obsessively realized through the creation of sometimes monumental dances of death.
November 4, 2023 to April 14, 2024
