A remarkable presentation at the Venice Biennale brought Renate Bertlmann to more international attention. One of the leaders of the Austrian (feminist) avant-garde has a long record of outstanding art: see for yourself at the Belvedere 21 retrospective.
- Over 200 exhibits from the late 60s onwards
- Enjoy Bertlmann’s often radical & “provocative” works
- Runs Sept 29, 2023 – Mar 3, 2024
- See also:
Fragile Obsessions
(Renate Bertlmann, Knife-Pacifier-Hands – Ambivalences 1, 1981; © Renate Bertlmann/ Bildrecht, Vienna 2022; courtesy Gallery Richard Saltoun, London)
I’m feeling my way slowly through modern and contemporary art, as if wearing sunglasses in an unlit room with the blinds down.
The slow trickle of growing knowledge includes a few names that seem to appear regularly in exhibitions and the press.
Names that carry a sense of purpose and weight to them.
Like Alex Katz, Georg Baselitz, VALIE EXPORT…and Renate Bertlmann. Belvedere 21 honours the latter’s work, achievements, voice (and 80th birthday earlier in 2023) with a major retrospective.
My first live experience with Bertlmann’s works was her contribution to the Carlone Contemporary series, drawing on her presentation for the 2019 Venice Biennale. The bed of glass rose stems with knives emerging from the flower heads left a lasting impression.
(Exhibition view of Renate Bertlmann. Fragile Obsessions; press photo by Johannes Stoll / Belvedere, Wien © Bildrecht, Wien 2023)
At the forefront of Austrian feminist avant-garde, Bertlmann’s work often includes the kind of ambivalences seen in the Biennale piece, alongside a sense of humour, satire and irony; works that address (patriarchal) power structures, for example, or gender roles and relations…chipping away at stereotypes and preconceptions.
Provocative is also a word commonly associated with Bertlmann’s art.
When London’s Tate Modern offered an international take on the pop art of the 60s and 70s, for example, they included Bertlmann’s Exhibitionism three-piece; this was once deemed too contentious for even a feminist exhibition in 1975 Vienna.
The artist herself has noted, however:
Provocation isn’t important to me at all. I simply want to express what moves me, what hurts me, what drives me, this is what I want to express and to do so uncompromisingly, this is in itself provocative.
(Renate Bertlmann, Wheelchair Type Easy Rider, 1975; © Renate Bertlmann / Bildrecht, Vienna 2022; courtesy: Sammlung Koschier, Vienna)
Anything that points to an undesirable status quo inevitably attracts the provocative label. After all, men and the truth about society & gender, in particular, are not always comfortable in each other’s company.
The exhibition covers an artistic chronology that begins in 1968 and continues through to 2023, with a wide spectrum of works: from those on public view for the first time to others that have long achieved iconic status, especially where tackling issues around gender-related themes.
The 200 or so exhibits also reflect Bertlmann’s often radical and pioneering use of various media: installations, drawings, sculptures, performance art, and more.
Wandering around, I was certainly struck by that variety, from pink perspex to black & white stills. Though various objects and motifs make regular appearances throughout the chronology: knives, breasts, pacifiers and penises.
(Renate Bertlmann, Diverse Farphalle Impudiche, 1983; © Elfriede Mejchar; courtesy: Renate Bertlmann)
The humour in many works becomes equally apparent, albeit underpinned by implicit commentary (or possibly the other way around). Art perhaps created with a wink, closely followed by a serious and challenging glance.
Equally, just as you might be seduced into wry amusement, a closer look (or the next piece) jolts you into deeper thought, perhaps teasing at a taboo or taking you out of your comfort zone…and thereby inviting you to question why that zone ends where it does.
I even felt a pang of sadness at items where Bertlmann addresses existence and transience. At 1980’s Desire Waning, for example, where a series of transparent cylinders contain progressively less and less glitter. Simple but effective as it might say on the side of the packet.
In total…amusing, moving, discomforting and impressive.
Dates, tickets & tips
Enjoy the journey through Bertlmann’s oeuvre from September 29th, 2023 to March 3rd, 2024. An entrance ticket for or from Belvedere 21 includes the exhibitions within.
If you’re in Vienna outside the exhibition dates, you can find Bertlmann’s works elsewhere in the Belvedere institutions.
- Amo Ergo Sum in the Kammergarten is part of a wider outdoor show of sculptures and installations that ends on October 1st, 2023
- At least one work normally hangs in the avant-garde section of the permanent exhibition at Upper Belvedere
I believe a work by Bertlmann also appears in the Being Mortal exhibition set to run from October 6th, 2023 to August 25th, 2024 at the Dom Museum.
How to get there
Follow the travel tips at the bottom of the main Belvedere 21 article.
Address: Quartier Belvedere, Arsenalstraße 1, 1030 Vienna