Tomak about Salzburg
dal 12/5/2010 al 17/7/2010
Segnalato da
12/5/2010
Tomak about Salzburg
Museum der Moderne - Rupertinum, Salzburg
Works by the painter, draftsman, writer and performance artist. The exhibition is focuses on the artist's graphic works and their provocative motifs. Tomak usually starts his drawings with a central motif which is created painstakingly with meticulous attention to detail and precise naturalism. The works on display are accompanied by paintings (oil/acrylic on wood) specially conceived for the show.
Curator Emilie Breyer
The MdM Rupertinum presents the first major museum exhibition of works by the
painter, draftsman, writer and performance artist TOMAK. The exhibition is titled "TOMAK
about Salzburg" and focuses on the artist's graphic works. After completing his studies at
the University of Applied Arts, TOMAK went through various phases before he finally
found his own idiosyncratic and complex style. Born in St. Veit in the Austrian province
of Lower Austria, TOMAK has been living in Vienna for many years. His works are
influenced by city life, by other artists whose oeuvre he has studied and by his
preoccupation with literature and high culture.
TOMAK’s drawings are forthright and direct. Their provocative motifs inevitably attract
the viewer’s attention. TOMAK usually starts his drawings with a central motif which is
created painstakingly with meticulous attention to detail and precise naturalism. Each
stroke of the pencil is in its right place, the composition is developed in a process-
oriented manner around the central motif. The artist finds the ideas and motifs for his
works in everything that surrounds him; when he paints or draws, he usually has no
concept to start with. He picks up everyday subjects from posters, magazines, TV and
the internet, transforms them into thoughts and philosophical statements and finally
uses them in his drawings. His preoccupation with the works of Rembrandt and Albrecht
Duerer and exploration of contemporary artists such as Martin Kippenberger or Jonathan
Meese are also reflected in his motifs. The works of Richard Wagner, Friedrich Nietzsche
and his circle in particular are recurring motifs and play a key role in TOMAK’s compositions
of images and texts. Pinups, painstaking studies of human anatomy and disease,
philosophy, history, religion and popular culture are also featured in TOMAK's pictorial
world. Many of TOMAK’s drawings have autobiographical traits and are based on private
motifs and photographs. During the process of drawing and exploration of a specific
subject, the artist creates text fields; he then crosses parts of the text out or covers it with
other drawings, thus obliterating it again. These dense text fields covered with small
letters appear on TOMAK’s sheets like an integrated pictorial ground and connect the
drawings with regard to both form and contents. The compositions are frequently
surrounded by texts and numerous small, independent drawings which are – similar to a
collage - placed in front of the text, merge with each other and reference each other. In
this way the artist creates vibrating works composed of numerous images placed next to
each other that provoke and irritate at the same time, encourage the viewer to think and
sometimes appear repulsive.
In his versatile oeuvre, TOMAK works with numerous means of expression, including
painting, drawing, texts and performances. The drawings on display are accompanied by
paintings (oil/acrylic on wood) specially conceived for the exhibition. TOMAK frequently
uses drawings as basis for his paintings and performance art. Apart from drawings created
over the past three years, the exhibition focuses in particular on the cycles "TOMAK about
Salzburg I", 2008, "TOMAK about Salzburg II", 2010 and "Alphabet", 2009. Another part of
the exhibition introduces visitors to the world of TOMAK’s performance art. Two video
works, presenting excerpts from the performances "TOMAK about Salzburg" and "Ich ziehe
in den Krieg", give some insight into the artist’s complex and often strange world.
In conjunction with the exhibition, a catalogue will by published by Verlag der Provinz,
including a preface by Toni Stooss and a text by Emilie Breyer (72 pages, 43 illustrations,
available in the museum shop at a price of 19 € ).
Image: TOMAK, Ich ziehe in den Krieg IV, 2008 Bleistift auf Papier, © TOMAK
Press contact:
Christine Forstner T+43.662 84 22 20-601 presse@mdmsalzburg.at
Opening: Thursday 13 May 2010, 7.00 p.m.
Museum der Moderne Rupertinum
Wiener Philharmoniker Gasse 9 - 5020 Salzburg
Hours
tuesday to sunday: 10.00 a.m.- 06.00 p.m.
wednesday: 10.00 a.m. - 08.00 p.m.
monday closed
Open on Pentecost Monday, 24 May 2010, from 10.00 a.m. till 6 p.m.
Adults € 6,-
Seniors € 4,-
Children 6 years of age and older, pupils, students € 4,-
Groups of more than 10 persons € 5,-
Familyticket: min. 1 parent and 1 child (up to 15 years of age) € 8