CHRISTIAN LUDWIG ATTERSEE

Attersee Galerie Gmurzynska
Paradeplatz 2 & Talstrasse 37 14 March–31 May 2024

Press Release

An Attersee painting is always a feast, a happening, a boiling over with a new pictorial language, an inventive symbolism of life, love and nature. His paintings are to be seen, to be heard, smelled, tasted, and loved.

—Max Hollein, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Galerie Gmurzynska announces a career-spanning solo exhibition of the legendary Austrian artist, Christian Ludwig Attersee in both of its Zürich spaces. The exhibition brings together paintings and sculptures from 1960s through his most recent genre-defying paintings of today.

Attersee’s independent trailblazing creative attitude passed through the modes of Viennese Actionism, Fluxus, international Pop and Dada in order to subvert them with virtuosic technique and imaginative and humorous invention always with an eye to the themes of consumption, love, male beauty and food.

This exhibition at Galerie Gmurzynska follows his celebrated reemergence in New York after two solo exhibitions there last year as well as the 2023 Los Angeles restaging of the 1987 artist’s carnival “Luna Luna,” featuring Attersee’s—also a champion sailor – boat swing ride.

1940 born in Bratislava, Slovakia, Attersee’s artistic journey began during his youth when he moved to Austria near Linz and began writing novels, composing music, and creating comics at Lake Attersee

1966 Christian Ludwig Attersee adopts his iconic surname ATTERSEE after the lake

1966 first solo show in Berlin is followed by exhibitions at the avant-garde Galerie nächst St. Stephan in Vienna and Galerie Bruno Bischofberger in Zürich

1977 representation at documenta 6 in Kassel

1981 exhibition at the Royal Academy, London

1986 exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, curated by Rudi Fuchs

1984 representation of Austria at the Venice Biennale, organized by Hans Hollein

1987 Attersee, Joseph Beuys, Georg Baselitz, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Salvador Dali, Keith Haring, David Hockney, Rebecca Horn, Roy Lichtenstein and Jean Tinguely participate in “Luna Luna” carnival by Andre Heller

1997 exhibition at the Albertina in Vienna

2005 design of the stage set for Stravinsky’s “Petrushka” at the State Opera in Vienna

2008 direction of the opera “Salome” by Richard Strauss in Bremen

2019 major retrospective at the Belvedere 21 in Vienna

The lasting impact of Attersee on contemporary art can be summed up by contemporary star Jamian Juliano-Villani proclaiming: “He is a genius. We have decided he is more advanced than us.”

This exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated monographic catalogue published by Kunstforum Wien with contributions from Max Hollein, Ingried Brugger, Daniela Gregori and Rainer Metzger.

About the Gallery

GALERIE GMURZYNSKA is an international art gallery with locations in Zurich, Zug and St. Moritz, Switzerland, that specialises in modern and contemporary art as well as Russian avant-garde.

The gallery was founded in 1965 in Cologne, Germany by Antonina Gmurzynska. From the beginning, the gallery was interested in organising exhibitions that had a documentary character both through the choice of themes and through its publications.

In 1996 Mathias Rastorfer became a partner of both extensions of the gallery, having been with it since 1991 when he left his position as Associate Director at Pace Gallery in New York. Under his influence and in addition to the gallery’s traditional repertoire, the work of contemporary artists such as Donald Judd, Louise Nevelson and Yves Klein amongst others, was incorporated. Ten years later the gallery opened its third branch in St. Moritz at Via Serlas, in 2003.

Forty years after its establishment, Krystyna Gmurzynska and Mathias Rastorfer relocated the gallery from Cologne to its new flagship location in Zurich’s Paradeplatz in 2005. The building that currently houses the gallery dates back to 1857 and it is the same building in which the Dada movement was founded in 1917. The first exhibition in Zurich was a solo exhibition by Alexander Calder entitled, The Modernist, that was thoroughly endorsed by the Calder Foundation, which described it is as, ‘rare to experience a presentation of this quality outside of a museum’. As with each exhibition at the gallery the show featured a fully illustrated catalogue with important essays.

Galerie Gmurzynska continues to present unique exhibitions that are both historically well researched and scientifically documented. It also continues to work with leading art historians as well as collaborating with museums on exhibitions and for the enlargement of their permanent collections. Additionally, it currently participates in several art fairs such as Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Basel Hong Kong, Frieze Masters in London, Salon in New York and Art Basel, Switzerland. In the past it has taken part in FIAC, Abu Dhabi and PAD New York.

View Gallery Profile

Address

Paradeplatz 2 & Talstrasse 37

Opening Hours

Mon - Fri, 10am - 6.30pm
Sat, 10am - 4pm

Galerie Gmurzynska

Paradeplatz 2, Zurich, Switzerland

+41 442 267 070
http://www.gmurzynska.com

Opening hours

Mon - Fri, 10am - 6.30pm
Sat, 10am - 4pm

Magazine Gallery Platform Advisory

Ocula Magazine

A respected voice in contemporary art discourse.

Focusing on ambitious storytelling and insightful art-world commentary. Ocula Magazine publishes in-depth interviews, critical essays and timely analysis on the artists, exhibitions and ideas driving the global art world.

Learn more about Ocula Magazine

Ocula Gallery Platform

Showcasing the best of the art world.

Ocula partners with galleries from around the world to highlight their artists, artworks and exhibitions. Gallery membership is by application and invitation, with each member vetted by an independent panel.

Learn more about Ocula Membership

Ocula Advisory

Specialises in the sale of major artworks.

Led by a team with deep ties to the world’s leading auction houses, galleries and collectors. Ocula’s advisory team offers bespoke services to high-net-worth clients from around the world who are looking to acquire the best of contemporary and modern art.

Learn more about our team and services

The art world in focus

CHRISTIAN LUDWIG ATTERSEE

Installation Views