Gustav Kindermann was born in Vienna on March 12, 1928. After his graduation from the Akademie für Angewandte Kunst (Academy of Applied Art) (now Universität für Angewandte Kunst (University of Applied Art)) in Vienna he immersed himself in the painting of frescoes. At the beginning of the 1970s, already internationally renowned as a great designer, he began to develop an artistic style of his own closely resembling that of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism.

The autonomy of his early works from this period - such as the Daphne series - from other representatives painting in this style as regards formality and content is evident in the isolated expression of one fundamental thought dominating the entire work. All meticulously elaborated details become subject to a main theme without being diminished in the essentiality of their presence. During this period, which is characterized by the almost exclusive use of graphite as medium, the artist explored a completely new way of interpreting motives mostly from the Old Testament and classic mythology. The impressiveness of each individual work lies in the humanistically de-personified and newly individualized, archetypically ideal physiognomies and bodies which are embedded in, fused into or torn up in surreal contexts, suggesting a world in which the laws of the depicted matter alone seem to be valid.

Over the course of the 1980s the monochromatic drawings in Fantastic Realist style gave way to a colorful œuvre whose character was no longer marked by the approach towards realistic shapes but which developed its own vocabulary of forms by distancing itself from the subject, mostly female nudes. The observer may recognize the original motif in the pleasant field of shapes and lines but it is not the body as such which conveys the meaning of these works. The body may serve as the source from which the whole was created but the focus is mainly on the abstract creation of aesthetics arising from nature's quintessence whose encodement is marked by a core interpreted in an equally intuitive and rational way. As a result these paintings may be seen as objective and abstract at the same time - objective because they show an object, abstract by the way of showing it.

The works of Gustav Kindermann created towards the end of the 1990s also follow this principle although the human figure as such more frequently shifts into the center of composition for its anatomic qualities, sometimes resulting in a demonstration of the possibilities of an extremely minimalist and yet infallibly striking depiction of the human body. The complexity of anatomy is changed into the geometricized writing already instinctive to the artist. The degree of abstraction of the nudes presented at the exhibition Körperlandschaften (literally equivalent to "Body Landscapes" or "Body Scapes") held in 1999 is reflected in the theme of the exhibition. The nudes, too, were inextricably interwoven with their surroundings. They were also dissolved in abstracted shapes and formulas. They also constituted the nucleus of complex reference systems almost perfectly described by the term "Body Landscapes".

In the meantime, real landscapes also figure in the works of Gustav Kindermann. Again they are not copies of visual impressions. The same eye that led the hand to depict "Body Landscapes" also compresses these landscapes into almost metaphysical signatures of themselves, far from bucolic genre paintings. Abbreviations of houses, trees and roads once again follow a strict and at the same time sensitive schematization perfect in itself which seems to know neither vacillation nor distinctive aim.

This is another impressive trait disclosed in the artist's creations. The study of nature is always evident. The subject in question is always unmantled down to its basics in a way almost incomprehensible to the observer and then newly enrobed in an equally irrefutable reality. Yet there is no process that could lead the recipient to the discovery of a purposely standardized routine. The gap between intentional coincidences and the coincidentally intended is too wide. The works of Gustav Kindermann don't convey a sense of self-imposed stylistics - they evolve during the creative process.

Especially the works subsequent to 2001 on the one hand represent the always predominant compositorial and technical order and freedom from any kind of mechanical program of self-imitation on the other. The strict design of the sketch provides only the framework for the picture. Elaborative elements are never subject to preconceived expressions but are determined by a line that seems to reflect different frames of mind and stages of energy in different places. Plastic components oscillate between passive accompaniment and active eruption. Static and dynamic factors in their mutual correspondence follow the intuitive discretion of the artist. The relief substance of the applied material by no means seems succinct but as a result of its structure is spread in a finely jointed manner. Its plasticity merely serves aesthetic significance and does not imply any spatial suggestion of depth like ordinary reliefs. The profoundness of these works can neither be conveyed by geometric measures nor by the proportion of surface. There is nothing to imply a localizable limit of shapes inside or outside the picture. The rhythmic momentum of counterpoints multiplying each other is highly suggestive of a musical fugue. No longer originating in a concrete realm, the shapes display their own semantics which do not intend to enter into discourse with an underlying subject but address their own objective entity. However, in the process they acquire an additional dimension that transforms the linear polarity between object and abstraction into a circular principle: a work titled Die Schwingen des Ikarus (The Wings of Icarus) refers to an ontological form of existence completely different from the one embodied in earlier works. These works are not deduced from the world of reality but lead there on other paths after originating from the world of the informal. It is not the motifs that are retraced in the signs of the artist but it is the signs inspiring the quest of motifs for coherence. It could be referred to as re-phrasing in concrete terms, a nature opposed to ours, connecting it with material nature in an associative way. In this sense Gustav Kindermann has succeeded in creating a system that enables the highly complex correlation between concrete and abstract art.

This system reveals a completely different approach towards space and matter. It combines painting and sculpture. It comprehends the immaterial and the tangible. It fuses the rational and the irrational. All in all, it demonstrates loyalty to classic genres of art combined with the ability to seek a way of its own without an exalted search for effects - the way of Gustav Kindermann.

Leander McMennkins