Thomas Reinhold (artist)

Thomas Reinhold (born in 1953, Vienna, Austria) is an Austrian painter, one of the initiators of so-called “New Painting” (in German Junge Wilde).

Life

From 1974 to 1978, Reinhold studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna under Herbert Tasquil. During his university studies, Reinhold concentrated on poetic-magical paintings and photographs, dealing with the objecthood of the image. In the late 1970s, Reinhold was one of the initiators of so-called “New Painting” (in German Junge Wilde) together with Siegfried Anzinger, Erwin Bohatsch, Alfred Klinkan and Hubert Schmalix. In the mid-1980s, Reinhold has begun to focus on issues of medium reflexivity of painting and photography, which has been dominating his work until today. Reinhold lives in Vienna.

Work

;Painting

Reinhold’s large-scale oil paintings address such issues as medium reflexivity, the material dimension of paint, or the canvas plane and its relation to space. The paintings deal with questions of their own creation and their relation to time by showing overlapping layers of colour. Because of this, the beholder needs to see the paintings in an almost archaeological way to explore the pictorial space.
In 2011, Reinhold worked on the series “Tectonics of Poise“. The subject of this group of works reflects on their own creation. Liquid paint coalesces around a dead centre, permitting – for a few moments – a process of ordered decision making. The painting procedure, in which the allocation of the centre of gravity is such an essential element, actually provokes this fleeting state where indeterminacy gives way to form. It is this point of transition that attracts attention and produces shapes seemingly suspended between rivulets.

;Photography
Since the beginning of his career, Reinhold has been interested in photography. In his 1977 “Ferris wheel series” he addresses issues of space, time and chronology. The series’ central motif, the “Wiener Riesenrad” (Viennese Ferris wheel) stands for questions of mobility and immobility, object and its image. In 2010, Reinhold lived in Shanghai for three months, where worked on the series “Brushstrokes of Light, Living Shades”. The photographs for this series were taken by night, and the resulting images recall the superimposition techniques employed in Reinhold‘s paintings. The paintings in the series are ink paintings made with a Chinese calligraphy brush, which remind the beholder of the early days of photography. Both the motifs and the technique are linked to the city Shanghai.

;Public Work
In 1999, Reinhold got the assignment of designing the windows of the Chapel of the Resurrection, Rue van Maerlant in Brussels, which he completed in 2002 in cooperation with the glass painting manufactory Schlierbach, Austria. As a result of the fusion technique used in the windows' production, their transparency provides a 'display model' of visual depth, the superimposition of different layers, and the relationship between coexistence and sequence. This allows the viewer to reflect on his or her own position. Looking out, the transitional coloured layer merges with the facades of the European government buildings opposite, while trees, an expanse of lawn, passing cars and people contribute their shapes and colours to a background layer of reality and add to the view as a whole.

Recognition

2011: Award for Fine Arts, City of Vienna

Exhibitions

;Selected individual exhibitions:
* 2012: "Tectonics of Poise", kunsthaus muerz, Mürzzuschlag, Austria; Gallery Kunst und Handel, Graz, Austria
* 2011: Gallery Gölles Fürstenfeld, Austria
* 2009: „Wesentlich“, Gallery Michitsch Vienna, Austria
* 2008: „repro-spektiv:re-produktiv, aus dem vollen geschöpft“, Gallery Kunst & Handel, Graz, Austria
* 2006: „From the Nature to an Architecture of Painting“, HF Contemporary Art, London, United Kingdom
* 2005: „synergie:paradox“, cooperation with Julie Hayward, Museum of Modern Art, Admont Abbey, Austria
* 1997: "Malweise“, Vienna Secession Vienna, Austria
* 1995: "Polyptychon“, Kunsthaus Galerie, Mürzzuschlag, Austria
* 1988: Valente, arte contemporanea, Finale Ligure, Italy
* 1987: Gallery Springer Berlin, Germany - „Stand und Gegenstand“, Skulpturen, Vienna Secession Vienna, Austria
* 1984: Gallery Heike Curtze, Vienna, Austria and Düsseldorf, Germany
* 1983: Gallery Ariadne, Vienna, Austria
* 1980: Forum Stadtpark, Graz, Austria

;Selected group exhibitions:
* 2012: The Sigrid and Franz Wojda Collection, MMKK, Museum of Modern Art Carinthia, Austria
* 2011: "Realität und Abstraktion", Museum Liaunig Neuhaus, Austria
* 2010: “Painting: Process and Expansion”, MUMOK Foundation Ludwig Vienna, Austria, curators: Rainer Fuchs, Edelbert Köb
* 2007: “Konzeptuelle Fotografie aus Sammlungsbesitz”, Museum of Modern Art Rupertinum, Salzburg, Austria, curator: Margit Zuckriegl
* 2006: „Crossover“, Koroska Galerija Slovenj Gradec, Slowenia, curator: Silvie Aigner
* 2004: „Vision einer Sammlung“, Museum of Modern Art Rupertinum, Salzburg, Austria, curator: Agnes Husslein

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