Geschichte und Architektur
History – A PLACE OF ENCOUNTERS
By the end of 2024, the Forum Frohner will have presented forty exhibitions highlighting post-war modernism as well as contemporary and emerging trends. Frohner’s work has been explored in relation to artists such as Joseph Beuys, Adalbert Stifter, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The forum has also addressed his role in Viennese Actionism and critically examined the concept of place in the exhibition Somewhere in the World: African-Austrian Encounters. Over 260 artists have been featured to date.
Art need not be beautiful but it must be truthful.
Frohner‘s artistic legacy is extensively documented in a detailed catalog. To date, three volumes totaling 850 pages have been published. Volume 1 covers Frohner‘s sculptures, while Volume 2 focuses on his paintings. In 2022, the private foundation Forum Frohner Privatstiftung and the Forum Frohner, in conjunction with the exhibition Drawing Emerges in the Mind: Frohner as a Drawer, released the third volume in collaboration with Kerber Verlag. This publication, like the exhibition, is dedicated to Frohner‘s drawings. The catalog features contributions from editors Dieter Ronte and Elisabeth Voggeneder, as well as authors Berthold Ecker, Susanne Neuburger, Joachim Rössl, and Kristian Sotriffer. All three volumes are available for purchase in the museum shop.
In 2024, we will celebrate the ninetieth anniversary of the birth of artist Adolf Frohner, who passed away in 2007. To honor this occasion, the Forum Frohner will present a two-part exhibition series exploring the artistic connections between the devoted educator and his students.
Architecture – A WHITE CUBE IN AN HISTORIC ENSEMBLE
The architecture of the Forum Frohner is straightforward, geometric, and understated. Extraneous elements have been avoided; the simplicity of the design even omits windows. As a contemporary white cube, Architect Lukas Göbl has integrated this place of dialogue into the historic ensemble of the Minorite Monastery in Krems-Stein in a harmonious and open way, inspired by the ancient concept of a forum, of a marketplace or gathering point. A glass corridor—the link between the existing monastery and the newly added exhibition space—allow visitors to experience the synthesis between old and new upon entering the building. The choice of colors and materials references both the surroundings as well as Frohner’s artistic work.
The deliberately simple and authentic materials and forms evoke the 'roughness' and 'subtle brutality' characteristic of Adolf Frohner’s art.
Inside, the sound-absorbing Heradesign panels visually recall Frohner’s early mattress paintings, while the Magnesia terrazzo floor reflects the restrained color scheme of the Minorite Church.
This intimate exhibition space at Minoritenplatz marks the western end of the Kunstmeile Krems.