Oswald Oberhuber

From 1945 to 1949 Oberhuber studied sculpture at the Bundesgewerbeschule in Innsbruck. This was followed by training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where he was taught by Fritz Wotruba. Later he attended the academy in Stuttgart under Willi Baumeister. He quickly established himself as a respected art connoisseur and appeared at public events, for example in 1964/65 as artistic advisor for the Galerie nächst St. Stephan, where he acted as director until 1978. As early as 1972 he was the Austrian representative at the Venice Biennale. From 1973 to 1998, Oberhuber worked as professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, eight years of which he was also its rector. Since 1982 he had been an honorary member of the Stuttgart Academy and in 2004, became an honorary senator.

Oberhuber exhibited a variety of object furniture, designs, drawings and paintings at the Vorsetzen Gallery twice - in 1989 and 1992. Overall, Oswald Oberhuber has had numerous exhibitions all over the world over the years, including in Bilbao, Merano, Ghent as well as in Germany and Austria.

Through his art, he tried to show the permanent change that causes a radical break in the uniform and stylistically monotonous art. He described himself as a postmodern artist. Curators describe his works as "surprising moments between reorientation and continuity".

Oswald Oberhuber was considered a central artistic personality who represented Austria in the international art scene after 1945. This was also because he not only paid attention to himself and his own work, but as an intellectual and organisational multi-talent always kept an eye on his art, cultural and socio-political environment. As an artist, as a gallery owner, as a professor and rector of the University of Applied Arts, as a curator and tireless networker, he brought the neo-avantgarde and its idols (eg Joseph Beuys) to Austria. When "discourse" was not yet a fashionable term, Oberhuber, together with artist friends and art experts, had long since been mediating forms of artistic practices that went well with theory. That art could also be an analytical tool for critical minds was something he never tired of advocating.

He was always curious about new artistic movements, which he playfully integrated into his work. Oberhuber dealt openly with his curiosity for something different and, precisely because of this, created an astonishingly diverse oeuvre well into old age. Oberhuber's work plays an essential role in the Mumok collection, demonstrating the international significance of the domestic scene with and alongside the works of the Vienna Group, the Vienna Actionists and Austrian Conceptual Art.