Untitled
2012, acrylic lacquer aluminium, 218 x 199 cm, photo Rainer Iglar, Salzburg
1959 born in Linz, Austria
1977-1982 University of Applied Arts Vienna
1996 Msgr. Otto Mauer Prize
2004 Prize of the City of Vienna for Visual Arts
2017 Cultural Prize for Visual Arts of the Province of Upper Austria
It is noticeable in Zitko's art how difficult it is for her to let the object be born out of graphism. Zitko wants to persevere as long as possible in the darkness of the graphic. He wants to stay close to the origin of the graphic and delays the birth of the object to the point of refusal. Those who, like Zitko, disrupt the programmed process from the graphic to the object, returning again and again to the graphic source and arriving at the object only by intricate, complicated detours, not only resist but also fight back. He who wants to leave the object unborn resists the osteo-muscular equipment of the hand and thus the technical-mechanical gesture. He wants to free the gesture from the tool, the hand from its mechanical features. This is where the nervous, annoying, infantile, unskilled, uncontrolled, psychopathic quality of Zitko's graphism comes from, because he does not want to submit - not to the smoothness of technical gesture, not to the mechanics of an osteo-muscular tool, not to the object and not to society. Those who attack the grasping for the object refuse the reduction of the graphic and want to develop the gesture further, beyond the mechanical into the spiritual, seeking states of emotion. The corrida of the graphic has as its death the object and as its victory the emotion, and Zitko wants to live, even if the will to live is already sagging in the writing of the second I. The object is not born. Those who want to leave the object unborn, who seek the state of the unborn, only seem to want to learn to die, but in reality want to find a life other than the objectified, commercialised, mechanical, constricted and limited life that society presents to them. His rhythmic graphism are therefore incantations to take him to a primal state (of ecstasy, of freedom) via the origin of the graphic.
Text excerpt Peter Weibel
Exhibition view galerie gölles Otto Zitko
untitled, 2013, acrylic lacquer aluminium, 149 x 218 cm
Spirogramme (Inspiration Series)
1992, photo on wood, unique piece, 120 x 120 cm
Ausstellungen
SOLO EXHIBITIONS Selection
2020
In times like these,..., CRONE, Berlin
Gallery 422 - Margund Lössl, Gmunden
2019
Retroprospektiv, LENTOS Art Museum Linz, Linz
Gallery at the Stone, Reichsberg am Inn
2017
Blue Lagoon, Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman Gallery, Vienna
2016
Gallery422, Gmunden
2015
Galeria Heinrich Ehrhardt, Madrid
Otto Zitko - Cardboards, Krobath, Berlin
Gallery Gölles, Fürstenfeld
2014
Line Up!, Museum Angerlehner, Thalheim near Wels
Gallery am Stein, Schärding
2013
Otto Zitko - day and night - night and day, Gallery Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Innsbruck
Otto Zitko, Gallery of the City of Wels, Wels
2012
The Essential Collection Zurich, Zurich
House of Art St. Josef, Solothurn
Otto Zitko - Pavel Háyek, Dům umění města Brna, Brno
2011
Krobath, Vienna
de corrido, Galería Heinrich Ehrhardt, Madrid
2010
Gallery 422, Gmunden
Me, Myself and I - Otto Zitko and Louise Bourgeois, Arnolfini, Bristol
getting hot, Krobath, Berlin
2009
KLERKX, Milan
2008
Gallery Krobath Wimmer, Vienna
arte-ria, Locarno
espacio marte, Mexico City
2007
Gallery Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Innsbruck
Gallery for Contemporary Art (GfZK), Leipzig
2006
Galería Heinrich Ehrhardt, Madrid (with Herbert Brandl)
Gallery Krobath Wimmer, Vienna
Bunkier Sztuki, Gallery of Contemporary Art Krakow
2005
Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki
Gallery am Stein, Schärding
2004
Austrian Cultural Forum, Prague
Moravská galerie v Brně (Moravian Gallery Brno) (with Josef Dabernig), Brno
Na bidýlku, Brno (with Josef Dabernig)
2003
Cheim & Read, New York
Franz West Vis-à-Vis Otto Zitko, Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerp (with Franz West)
Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman Gallery, Innsbruck
Gallery 422 Margund Lössl, Gmunden
Gallery & Edition Artelier, Graz
2002
Galería Heinrich Ehrhardt, Madrid
Gallery de l'École des Beaux-Arts, Caen
Gallery 3, Klagenfurt
2000
Cheim & Read, New York
Gallery Krobath Wimmer, Vienna
1999
Gallery Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Innsbruck
Rupertinum, Museum of Modern Art, Salzburg
1997
Gallery Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Innsbruck
9th Triennale India, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
1996
Gallery Christine König, Vienna
1995
Gallery Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
Galeria Potocka, Krakow
1994
Art Gallery Berne, Berne
Art Association in Hamburg, Hamburg
Culturcentrum Wolkenstein, Stainach
1993
Na bidýlku, Brno
1992
Secession, Vienna
Gallery Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
Gallery Peter Pakesch, Vienna
1991
January Gallery, Vienna
1990
Gallery Grässlin-Ehrhardt, Frankfurt/Main
Gallery Stadtpark, Krems
BWZ, The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (with Herbert Brandl and Franz West)
De Appel, Amsterdam (with Franz West)
1988
Albertina Collection of Prints and Drawings, Vienna
1989
Gallery Peter Pakesch, Vienna
1988
Albertina Collection of Prints and Drawings, Vienna
1987
Gallery Zwirner, Cologne
Gallery Peter Pakesch, Vienna
1986
Gallery Borgmann Capitain, Cologne
1985
Gallery Bärbel Grässlin, Frankfurt/Main
Gallery Peter Pakesch, Vienna
Gallery Jean Bernier, Athens
1984
Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent
1983
Gallery Peter Pakesch, Vienna
Gallery Aky Bleich, Graz
GROUP EXHIBITIONS Selection
2021
MOVE THE VIEW! Jakob Gasteiger, Walter Vopava, Otto Zitko, Gallery Estermann + Messner, Vienna
Tour de Force - Point, Line, Colour on the Way through Austrian Art after 1945, Museum Liaunig, Neuhaus/Suha
Very different alike. Art from Germany and Austria, CRONE BERLIN, CRONE WIEN, CRONE SIDE VIENNA
2020
Accrochage - Artists of the Gallery, Galerie am Stein, Reichersberg am Inn
ArtCologne@Home, CRONE SIDE, Berlin
Cuando B se encuentra entre C y D, Galería Heinrich Ehrhardt, Madrid
Art Summer at the Lake - Highlights from Gallery 422, Gallery 422 - Margund Lössl, Gmunden
Accrochage, Crone Side, Berlin
2019
Wolfgang Gurlitt. Magic Prince. Art dealer - collector, LENTOS - Kunstmuseum Linz, Linz
2018
True Stories. A Show Related to an Era - The Eighties, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
The 90s, 3rd Lift: Mobile Art in the Mobile Market, Wien Museum MUSA, Vienna
Curated by_ Markus Mittringer. Vienna waits for you - take care!, Gallery Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Vienna
Is Eros the planet I am watching right now?, Kunstverein am Rosa Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin; Villa Rosenthal, Jena; Pro Arte, Hallein
From the Hunger for Images, Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman Gallery, Vienna
2017
Aesthetics of Change, MAK - Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art, Vienna
BRANDL | VOPAVA | ZITKO, Gallery Gölles, Fürstenfeld
Upper Austrian Cultural Award, Studio Gallery of the Art Collection of the Province of Upper Austria, Linz
Big Paper, CIRKUS ELF, Contemporary Art, Putbus, Baltic Sea Island Rügen
Is Eros the planet I am watching right now?, Goldbergkunst e.V., Goldberg, Mecklenburg Western Pomerania
Abstract Painting Now!, Kunsthalle Krems
Continuity and Breaks - Paths of New Painting of the 1980s Museum Liaunig, Neuhaus / Suha
Open the Link - 20 Years Collection of Contemporary Art, Admont Monastery, Admont
2016
Painting in Transition-The Ploner Collection, Neue Galerie, Graz
Deep.Dark II, Gallery Menotti, Baden
An Original from ... (IV), Gallery Gölles, Fürstenfeld
2015
In the Light of the Public Austrian Art after 1945, Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck
An Original from ...(III), Gallery Gölles, Fürstenfeld
FLIRTING WITH STRANGERS - Encounters with works from the collection, 21er Haus, Vienna
Ballgasse 6. Pakesch Gallery and the Art Scene of the 80s, Wien Museum, Vienna
Painting as a matter of course! - The Ploner Collection, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna
The Eighties in the Collection of the MUSA, Wien Museum, MUSA, Vienna
The Wild Years, Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg
2014
Manifesta 10, Hermitage - General Staff Building, St. Petersburg
Net - Of Spinning in Art, Kunsthalle zu Kiel
2013
Trait papier II - un essai sur le dessin contemporain (An essay on contemporary drawing), Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestal
A.E.I.O.U. | Austrian Aspects in the Würth Collection, Würth Collection, Künzelsau-Gaisbach
Creative Density - Austrian Art from Five Decades, artroom Würth-Austria, Böheimkirchen
Franz West: The Viennese Friend, Museum Alex Mylona, Athens - Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki
Abstract Photography, Krobath Berlin
2012
Drawing, Gallery 422, Gmunden
Abstraction.Figuration, Sochi Art Museum
The Collection, Belvedere 21er Haus, Vienna
Sigrid and Franz Wojda Collection. A Life with Contemporary Art, Museum Moderner Kunst Kärnten, Klagenfurt
2011
The Mezzanin Collection. A Selection, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz
Museum of Desires, mumok, Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation Vienna, Vienna
The 80s: NEW PAINTING Collected #1, Tresor Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna
The Collection 1900-2011. 11 rooms, 11 decades, 11 interventions, Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz
2010
Ringturm.Kunst, Collection Vienna Insurance Group, Leopold Museum, Vienna
Painting: Process and Expansion - From the 1950s to the Present, mumok, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna
"I don't know what art is" Insights into a private collection, MARTa Herford, Herford
2009
Art is super!, Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin
Désire. Deux collections en dialogue, LAAC / FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, Dunkirk
Haydn Explosive. A European Career at the Esterházy Court, Sala Terrena, Esterházy Palace, Eisenstadt
Unplugged! - Pièces unique, tirages originaux, multiples et livres d'artistes, Atelier Michael Woolworth, Paris
2008
No Leftovers, Kunsthalle Bern, Bern
The Alliance, Hyundai Company doART, Beijing and Seoul
Monet - Kandinsky - Rothko and the consequences. Ways of abstract painting, Kunstforum Wien, Vienna
Obra Sobre Papel, Galería Heinrich Ehrhardt, Madrid
2007
Magic Line, MUSEION - Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art, Bolzano
2006
Landscape in Your Mind, Austrian Cultural Forum, New York
Soleil Noir. Depression and Society, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg
Esquiador en el fondo de un pozo, La Colección Jumex, Ecatepec
Milly's Maserati Show II, TENT. Centre for visual arts Rotterdam (with / with Madeleine Berkhemer
2005
Paint on Metal: Modern and Contemporary Explorations and Discoveries, Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
New Abstract Painting from Austria, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai; National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Shaanxi Province Art Museum, Xi'an; Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou
(my private) HEROES, Museum MARTa Herford
International Novosibirsk Biennial of Modern Graphics, Novosibirsk State Art Museum, Novosibirsk
China retour, mumok, Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation Vienna, Vienna
2003
Himmelschwer - Transformations of Gravity, Graz 2003 - European Capital of Culture, Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz
slow (e)motion or the decelerated space, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne
© EUROPE EXISTS, MMCA, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki
Simple Marks, Cheim & Read, New York
LokoMotive - It's Art's Turn, European Capital of Culture, Graz
2002
Concepts of Nature, Views, Gallery Krobath Wimmer, Vienna
Uncommon Denominator, MASS MoCA, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA
Die Zeichnung / The Drawing, Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, Ludwigsburg, Germany
2001
images / imaginations, Galeria Potocka, Krakow
International Contemporary Art, Museo de Arte Moderno / Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City
2000
The Intelligence of the Hand. European Master Drawings from Picasso to Beuys, Rupertinum, Museum of Modern Art, Salzburg
1999
Signed Places, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw
dAPERTutto, Biennale di Venezia, Venice
1998
The Century of Artistic Freedom, Secession, Vienna
1997
Epicenter Ljubljana, Moderna galerija Ljubljana, Ljubljana
Form and function of drawing today, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt/Main
1996
De Rode Poort / The Red Gate, S.M.A.K., Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent
Painting in Austria 1945-1995. The Essl Collection, Künstlerhaus, Vienna
Art from Austria 1896-1996, Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn
1995
On peut bien sûr tout changer, École d'Architecture, Rouen
1 : 1 Mural, Artist's Workshop Lothringerstraße, Munich
Sketches, models, notes, Raum aktueller Kunst, Vienna
1994
Lokalzeit - Viennese Material in the Mirror of Discomfort, Raum Strohal, Vienna; Moderna galerija Ljubljana; Palazzo Querini Stampalia, Venice
1993
Gallery Sylvana Lorenz, Paris
1991
Body and Body, Grazer Kunstverein, Graz
1990
Einleuchten, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg
1989
Open Mind, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent
1988
From Vienna. Positions of departure, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn
1987
Europalia - Contemporary Art in Austria, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent
In the Frame of Drawing - In the Course of Drawing, Secession, Vienna
1986
Hacken im Eis, Kunsthalle Bern, Bern; Museum of the 20th Century, Vienna
Aperto, Biennale di Venezia, Venice
The Elective Affinities - Quotations, Grazer Kunstverein, Graz
Signs and Gestures, Secession, Vienna
1985
Of Drawing, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt/Main; Museum of the 20th Century, Vienna
1984
Works on paper, Gallery Peter Pakesch, Vienna
Where did we come from and why, Im Klapperhof 33, Cologne; Forum Stadtpark, Graz
1983
La imagen del animal / Animals for a possible bestiarium, Madrid
1982
There is a rock ..., Gallery Peter Pakesch, Vienna