Franka Lechner

The Landesgalerie Niederösterreich is home to visual artists from Lower Austria. A fixed component of the annual exhibition program is the presentation of the Lower Austrian Honorary Prize Winners in the visual arts category.

Franka Lechner is the 2023 winner of the Lower Austrian Honorary Price

Franka Lechner (*1944 in Vienna) is one of the most important representatives of Austrian textile art and is the 2023 winner of the province of Lower Austria in the visual arts category. Her artistic oeuvre ranges from tapestry to painting and poetry. In her works, she deals with mythological, spiritual, socio-critical and personal themes as well as observations of nature.

In her early artistic career, Lechner concentrated on painting and collages on paper and experimented with textile materials. In the 1970s, the tapestries produced on the high loom came to the fore. For Lechner, weaving is a metaphor for life. Her tapestries consist of subtly orchestrated color spaces full of poetry and contemplative appeal. The color concepts are precisely defined in advance.

The artist's paintings are multi-layered messages on paper. They form an interplay of painterly, scriptural and graphic elements. In this exhibition, they are assigned to the concepts of earth, water, fire and air.

The exhibition brings together works from five decades and provides an insight into the artist's life's work. The show spans a "thread" from the Landesgalerie Niederösterreich across the Danube. The tapestry Meditation is on display in the crypt of Göttweig Abbey.

Curator: Hubert Nitsch

Cultural awards for great achievements and initiatives

The province of Lower Austria has been awarding cultural prizes for great achievements and initiatives since 1960. Every year, expert juries award prizes of appreciation and recognition in various fields - from architecture and music to adult education. They reflect the wide range of artistic creativity in Lower Austria. The awards also underline the supra-regional significance of the prizewinners.