Untitled
2017, oil on canvas, 150 x 100 cm
1948 born in Vienna
Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with Prof. Max Melcher
1999 Prize of the City of Vienna and Appreciation Prize of the Province of Lower Austria
2011 Austrian Art Prize, Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture
2011 Austrian Art Award, Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture
1999 Prize of the City of Vienna for Fine Arts / Appreciation Prize for Fine Arts of the Province of Lower Austria
While Walter Vopava's paintings in the 1980s still had figurative references, in the course of the 1990s he developed the painting as a colour space in his examination of light, colour and atmosphere. Heavy dark colour fields are set in relation to brightly shining colour surfaces of different hues. The results are meditative depth spaces that suggest a mysterious "behind" to the viewer. Walter Vopava's working method does not start from an idea that is illustrated, but conversely, this idea only arises during the painting process. Nevertheless, the artist's painting eludes arbitrariness, since it is initially oriented towards a certain system that can never be considered absolute.
Walter Vopava's approach to painting is decidedly purist. With elementary means, the substantiality of painting is explored, any pretence is swept aside. For him, abstraction is not necessarily a style, but the possibility of concentrating on the essential in painting, detached from the pretence of content and figurativeness. Painterly bar structures float in space and interlock; sometimes they drift away, visible only at the outermost borders of the picture. A clear brightening occurs here, the dark gives way to the light. The light constant is sometimes increased to such an extent that a glistening white pushes into the foreground. Elsewhere, the dark zones condense into heavy solid areas of colour. Nuanced shades of green accentuate the black and white contrast of the monumental colour field.
Florian Steininger
Untitled
2017, oil on canvas, 150 x 100 cm
Untitled
2016, oil on canvas, 80 x 60 cm
Ausstellungen
SOLO EXHIBITIONS Selection
2017 BRANDL | VOPAVA | ZITKO, Gallery Gölles, Fürstenfeld
2012 Walter Vopava, bechter kastowsky gallery, Vienna
2011 Walter Vopava, Kunsthalle Krems / Walter Vopava, Michael Kienzer, Gallery 422, Gmunden
2010 Walter Vopava, Barockschlössl, Mistelbach Art Association
2009 Walter Vopava, New Works, Gallery Amer Abbas, Vienna
2007 Walter Vopava, Franz Graf, Gallery 422, Gmunden
2005 Walter Vopava, Arthur Salner, Gallery Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Innsbruck
2004 Walter Vopava, Gallery at Porcia Castle, Spittal an der Drau / Walter Vopava, Gallery 422, Gmunden
2003 Black Dragon Society, Salzburg
2002 Apero, Carinthian Art Association, Künstlerhaus Klagenfurt / Factory, Kunsthalle Krems / Black Dragon Society, Vienna
2000 Walter Vopava, Gallery Menotti, Baden near Vienna
1999 Tone Fink, Walter Vopava, Museum of Modern Art, Wörlen Foundation, Passau
GROUP EXHIBITIONS Selection
2013 Fathers_Daughters, Strabag Artlounge, Vienna
2011 The 80s: New Painting - Collected #1, BA Kunstforum, Vienna / Reality and Abstraction I. Figurative and Expressive Concepts from 1980 to Today, Museum Launig, Neuhaus
2010 Gallerist's Choice, Wiener Art Foundation / Painting: Process and Expansion. From the 1950s to today, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna
2009 best of lentos, Lentos Art Museum, Linz
2008 Monet-Kandinsky-Rothko and the Consequences. Paths of Abstract Painting, BA Kunstforum, Vienna / Lang's 80s, Galerie Lang, Vienna
2007 30, Gallery Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Innsbruck / ... und immer fehlt mir was, und das quält mich, Werkstadt Graz
2006 Abstract Papers, BA Kunstforum, Vienna / genuine happiness, Gallery Amer Abbas, Vienna
2005 Free Space Painting. Austrian positions, Schloss Ulmerfeld, Amtsketten / China retour. Erwin Bohatsch, Herbert Brandl, Gunter Damisch, Hubert Scheibl, Walter Vopava, Otto Zitko, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna / New Abstract Painting from Austria, Shanghai Art Museum - National Art Museum of China, Beijing - Shaanxi Art Museum, Xian - Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou
2004 New Savages. A Development, Essl Collection, Klosterneuburg
2003 30 Years Galerie im Traklhaus, Part I. 1973-1982, Salzburg
2002 Papers, Gallery Eugen Lendl, Grauz
2001 Paper, Gallery Fortlaan 17, Gent
2000 pittura austriae. Positions from Austria II/III, Gallery Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman, Innsbruck and Kunstforum beim Rathaus, Hallein
1998 Walter Vopava. Austria, 7th International Cairo Biennale, Cairo
1996 Austrian Viewpoints, Gallery Fortlaan 17, Gent / Painting after 1980, Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin
Art from Austria 1896-1996, Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn