Herwig Zens

The Austrian artist Herwig Zens (1943–2019) exerted a strong influence on the Austrian cultural landscape. As a professor at Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts, he was responsible for the training of many generations of educators. In addition to his teaching activities, Zens created an extensive and internationally recognized artistic oeuvre for which he was awarded numerous prizes.

The exhibition honors the 80th birthday of the artist, who died in 2019, and opens up a cosmos of themes in paintings, drawings and prints that Zens consistently explored for decades. These include his etched diary, the Spanish painter Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), death and the composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828).

Zens broke records with his etched diary. This unique autobiographical testimony was created over a period of around 40 years. In 2005, the total print measured an impressive 40 meters. The 11 meter long version of the Lower Austrian State Collections can be seen in the Landesgalerie Niederösterreich. For the diary, he created hundreds of copper plates, which he printed on long strips of paper. Boxes with drawings and notes, but also without content, represent the individual days.

Zens not only created a considerable number of new interpretations of Goya's works. He also published his letters to the Spanish merchant and local politician Martín Zapater in German. The exhibition also sheds light on the themes of music and Greek mythology as well as the motif of death, which Zens obsessively realized through the creation of sometimes monumental dances of death.

Curator: Nikolaus Kratzer