Opening: Saturday, November 23, 2024, 2:00 to 7:00 pm
Finissage: Saturday, December 14, 2024, 2:00 to 7:00 pm
Opening hours: Tuesday to Thursday 3:00 to 7:00 pm and by appointment

Location: KLUBHAUS, Währingerstraße 79/13, 1180 Vienna

Put a stop to it. Slowing down. On the penultimate day of this year’s Art Biennale in Venice, the artist Leopold Strobl returns to Vienna. His works from Kritzendorf and Gugging, which in recent years have not only been shown in Paris, purchased by the New York Museum of Modern Art, but also admired in the Venetian Giardini, will be shown in Währing from November 23. The exhibition platform KLUBHAUS by Alexander Giese and Christof Habres, in cooperation with galerie gugging, presents new works by the unique artist, who was born in Mistelbach.

Paris, Venice, New York: what society imagines an artist’s life to be – the classic “La Vie de Bohème” – usually has little to do with the reality of artists’ lives. And even less so if, as in the case of Leopold Strobl, we are dealing with an “art brut” artist or, as experts like to call it, an “outsider artist”. Brief moments of being in the spotlight alternate with long periods of solitude.

Leopold Strobl, born in 1960, has recently been the subject of a flurry of camera flashes and hustle and bustle. The Museum of Modern Art in New York acquired works by the artist from Mistelbach. He was also one of the few Austrian artists selected by curator Adriano Pedrosa for this year’s main exhibition at the Venice Biennale “Foreigners everywhere”. From the outside, it seems like perfect luck. The public celebrated Leopold Strobl and he let them.

For other artists, this curatorial election would have meant the pinnacle of their career. They would take off, be swept away by the wave of success and be led astray from their own path.

Not so Leopold Strobl. For him, these events do not have no significance, but a different one. If you ask lovers of “Outsider Art” about the origins of their enthusiasm, you are often confronted with the statement that it is a form of work beyond any artistic or (art) market-related pressure. Art in its purest form, so to speak. An eternal and exciting discussion.

The solitary consistency that Strobl demonstrates in his everyday life is reflected in his art. He adds a work of art to his oeuvre every day. In the colours yellow, black and green. Consistently. Without exception.

His works come in (newspaper) small format. This makes the confrontation even more intense. Because it forces the viewer to take a closer look. To look behind Strobl’s curtain, so to speak: access to his original world is only possible with quiet discretion. These are Strobl’s worlds, which will still be present when the public glare is dimmed again. The perfect irony is inherent in his artistic work in that he has chosen tabloid-like small formats as the basis for his artworks. Print media, which usually attract attention because of their unreflectedly loud, blatantly offensive headlines. Leopold Strobl opposes this and creates his own artistic and social cosmos through constant work. He does not need the noise, the loudness. On the contrary: he sets limits to these tendencies. If he doesn’t like certain headlines or images, these are the first to be artistically reworked and alienated. His motifs, which he places over headlines and landscapes, are reminiscent of sculptures, monoliths and barriers that clearly state: “This far and no further!”

When an exhibition recently opened in his hometown and Leopold Strobl was described as a great son of the municipality, the recognition naturally meant a great deal to him. A circumstance that fuels the hope that the dramaturgy of the exhibition in the Klubhaus “I only saw green” will meet the artist’s wishes. After all, we do what we do for the people who spend their lives – usually in seclusion – in their studios.

Although we hope that he will give up his seclusion at least once to make his way to Währing with his favourite cab driver …

*Text Christof Habres