Loewit Georg

The works of artist Georg Loewit, born in Innsbruck in 1959, never fail to surprise: while the back view of his figures presents itself in a realistic formal language, they develop a completely smooth front side via an abstract side view. The usual legibility in the sense of a fully plastic sculpture is transcended in order to create a new projection surface on the supposed "missing part" - the smooth cut surface. The loss of the classical front confuses familiar visual experiences without, however, calling into question the three-dimensionality of the figure. The sharp outline of the silhouette compacts the typical features of the protagonists and expands the space for personal associations and perceptions. The works play with moments of confusion and question visual experiences and expectations. Both the smooth cut surface on the front and the real back view define typical characteristics of the individual protagonists in two completely different formal languages. The question that portrait art has been asking itself for centuries of to what extent one can deduce the essence of the individual from the external view, is extended in Loewit's work on the entire person and their typical postures.

Two of the six works that Georg Loewit is showing at this year's Triennial are a tribute to the founders of Bad Ragartz, Esther and Rolf Hohmeister.

Quote

«When I was very young and decided to go down the path of art, my worried mother of five asked me: What will your children write down as their father's job?»