Helmut Federle - Kabinett Art Basel Miami Beach 2018 - Galerie nächst St. Stephan
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Helmut Federle
Early Works
1980-1985
Kabinett
Art Basel Miami Beach 2018
Helmut Federle
Early Works
1980-1985
Kabinett
Art Basel Miami Beach 2018
Two Heart Flames, N.Y.C., Feb. 80
1980
acrylic, pencil on corrugated board
24 1∕4 × 12 1∕2 in. (61,5 × 32 cm)
[Woman Screaming in Horror]
Vor Entsetzen schreiende Frau
1983
ink, felt pen, whiteout on paper
11 1∕4 × 8 1∕4 in. (28,6 × 21 cm)
[Three Women, Drawing for the Painting Trois Femmes Fidèles]
3 Frauen, Zeichnung zu Bild Trois Femmes Fidèles
1984
pencil on paper
11 1∕4 × 8 1∕4 in. (28,7 × 21 cm)
[Body and Line]
Körper und Linie
1983/84
oil on canvas
16 1∕3 × 13 in. (41,5 × 33 cm)
[Woman with Poodle + Child (unborn) at Full Moon]
Frau mit Pudel (Poodle) + Kind (ungeboren) bei Vollmond, Chur,
M+ F Two of a differnt Kind; Being the Same 4. Mai 1983, (The Death of the Love, to N.)
1983 1983
ballpoint pen on paper pencil, ballpoint pen on paper
11 1∕4 × 8 1∕4 in. (28,7 × 21 cm) 11 3∕4 × 8 1∕4 in. (29,8 × 21 cm)
A City at the Sea, Mai 80
1980
pencil, crayon on paper
8 1∕2 × 11 in. (21,5 × 27,8 cm)
[Spiral Form with Red Angle]
[Oriental Economist (Stone)]
Gewundene Form mit rotem Winkel (T) (M/F) Oriental Economist (Stein)
1984 1980
pencil, colored pencil on paper ballpoint pen, colored pencil on paper
10 1∕4 × 7 in. (26 × 18 cm) 10 × 7 1∕4 in. (25,2 × 18,3 cm)
[Constallation on 12/17/1982 of Three Persons]
Konstallation am 17.12.82 von drei Personen
1982
ballpoint pen, pencil, ink on paper
8 × 10 in. (20,3 × 25,4 cm)[3 Chairs & 1 Tomb]
3 Stühle & 1 Grab, N.Y.C., Dec. 82
1982
arylic on paper
10 1∕2 × 16 in. (26,5 × 40,8 cm)[Person of Light]
Person des Lichts
1982
pencil, felt pen, ballpoint pen on paper
10 × 7 3∕8 in. (25,5 × 18,7 cm)Untitled, N.Y.C., 80
1980
acrylic on corrugated board
24 × 18 in. (61 × 45,7 cm)[The Fox Howls + the Farmer's Wife Looks for Him]
[Untitled] For David Byrne and Davis Smith
Ohne Titel. For David Byrne and David Smith Der Fuchs heult + die Bäuerin sucht ihn
1981 1982
pencil, colored pencil on paper ballpoint pen, felt pen, colored pencil on paper
11 × 8 1∕2 in. (28 × 21,5 cm) 11 × 8 1∕2 in. (28 × 21,5 cm)[Iran Carpet, before the Revolution (Draft for a Carpet)]
Iran Teppich, bevor the Revolution (Entwurf für einen Teppich)
1980
pencil, whiteout on paper
10 1∕2 × 8 1∕4 in. (26,5 × 21 cm)Untitled
1982
felt pen on paper
11 1∕2 × 8 1∕4 in. (29,2 × 21 cm)Untitled
1985
oil on canvas
17 3∕4 × 21 5∕8 in. (45 × 55 cm)[Signs of the New Order]
Zeichen der neuen Ordnung
1981
felt pen on paper
11 1∕4 × 8 1∕4 in. (28,6 × 21 cm)Endless Turn
1982
felt pen on paper
11 5∕8 × 8 1∕4 in. (29,5 × 21 cm)HELMUT FEDERLE “When somebody undertakes a journey, when somebody sets off to see the world and returns a changed person, when somebody is more at home abroad than at home, he is then often viewed with suspicion by the stay-at-homes. Whoever travels much can lose the sense of belonging on account of this factual and figurative mobility. This could particularly apply to Helmut Federle. He has not only left the distinct- ness of a place, but also the affiliation to a clan, a group, a school to a specific direction and opinion. However, in turn, he has gained freedom and independence, and that is especially what characterizes him as an artist.” This statement about Helmut Federle, from an essay by Fanni Fetzer (Kunstmuseum Luzern, 2012), could have been written already at the beginning of the 1980s. Federle’s life has been characterized by countless excursions outside the art world and the constant encounter with foreign cultures. It is the life of a seeker. “The restlessness,” he says, “is part of the magic.” North African culture, the US, and Far Eastern philosophy – “in my life there are these three strands of cultural character,” says the artist – “they are anything but homogeneous. I can unite them in me, but I cannot bring them to coincide.” If one understands Federle’s works as an expression of such a broad existence, then the tension of his practice is almost self-explanatory – as is the search for a center and balance, which becomes noticeable in them. Between 1979 and 1983, he realized four major paintings in New York, together with small pictures and important abstract works on paper. The drawings are not sketches but stand as works in and of them selves. Partly, they are derived from travels across the United States and Canada, yet they are not a direct derivation of travel experiences, but rather climatic notes. Something searching can be detected, along with the use of a constructivist vocabulary in a surreal or spun manner.
Sometimes poems pop up. Helmut Federle’s “thinking drawing tech-
nique” is autonomous.
Sometimes an A4 paper format is used as a template for his artistic
expression, or cardboards are picked up from the street. This mani-
fests an attitude of under no circumstances operating with an effort
and of not falling into the cliché role of an artist. Deliberately, he does
not have a systematic daily work routine in his studio.
In 1985, Helmut Federle’s seminal text about drawing, “Über Masse
und Ausdehnung in der Zeichnung” (About Mass and Extension in
Drawing), was published. In it, Federle writes the following:
“In my opinion, drawing is better suited than any other media for tracing
and exploring ideas that are like notes. It is perhaps best comparable
to writing. Drawing connects and links fields of energy in a confined
space in a way that is direct, with little control from the ‘outside’ and
without consideration for the picture support and its own value. (…)
What is fast, direct, an instrument of the soul and the mind through
the wielding of the wrist, crystalline, sketched – all this possesses an
authenticity based on an immediate assumption.”
The work of the new order is in a floating state, a restless balance
that needs to be renegotiated at any given moment. Federle operates
“climatically, not geometrically.” He works from his own person and
his personal horizon of experience, the cultural space in the broadest
sense, large cities, landscapes, non-European civilizations or rock
culture. He has a great deal of skepticism and rejection towards
ideologies and understandings. The creation of art is an existential
matter and a philosophical question. By repeatedly working with the
letters of his own name, H and F, he “literally” and discreetly places his
life and person in his abstract images.
Robert FleckHelmut Federle was born in 1944 in Solothurn, Switzerland and currently lives
and works in Vienna, Austria and Camaiore, Italy.
From1999 to 2007 he was Professor at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf, Germany.
In 1997, he represented Switzerland at the 47th Venice Biennale.
He received the Prix Aurelie Nemours in 2008 and the Ricola Prize in 2016.
MUSEUM exhibitions (SELECTION)
Museum fur Gegenwartskunst, Basel
Kunsthalle Zurich
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Fridericianum, Kassel
Galerie national du Jeu de Paume, Paris
Kunstmuseum Bonn
IVAM Centre Julio Gonzalez, Valencia
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes
Kunsthaus Bregenz
Kunstmuseum Luzern
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon
Fundación Bancaja, Valencia
Moderna Museet Stockholm
Musée de Grenoble
Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague
Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld
Starting in May 2019, the Kunstmuseum Basel will be presenting the
solo exhibition “19 E. 21 ST., 6 LARGE PAINTINGS”
by Helmut Federle, which will continue during Art Basel
Robert Fleck, born 1957 in Vienna, Austria moved to France in 1980. From 2000 to 2012,
he was the director first of the Academy of Art in Nantes, then of the Deichtorhallen in
Hamburg, and finally the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn. In 2012, he became Professor of
Art and the Public Sphere and vice-president of the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf.
Since 1984 Helmut Federle is represented by
Helmut Federle, 1980 in his studio 19 E. 21 St., New York
GALERIE NÄCHST ST. STEPHAN ROSEMARIE SCHWARZWÄLDER Photo: Hans-Peter Vögtlin, Therwil
Grünangergasse 1, 1010 Vienna/Austria, www.schwarzwaelder.at
Contact: pekerman@schwarzwaelder.at
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