Life
Career
Painting
Hünerfauth's artistic career began as a painter. At first she was taught in the craft of painting during a solid traditional academic training under the professors Jank and Hess at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste (Academy of Fine Arts) in Munich. Thus at first, Hünerfauth painted figurative landscapes (e.g., ''Isartalbahnhof'', 1938) and portraits, mostly from her familial environment (e.g., ''Familie Hünerfauth'', 1946) and if she had followed that norm, she would have become a respectable painter of the post-impressionism style. But indeed, even the paintings of her early period featured their own signature style. Occasionally, expressionistic elements can be found, for example the wildly moved landscape forms in the painting "Pupplinger Au" (1950) or "Mother and Son" (1952), which show strong emotional movement and deepness. The first mentioned owes much toPrints
The development of her printed graphic work evolved parallel to her painting and eventually became experimental. During her early period, Hünerfauth made figurative drawings and watercolors in the style of the academic tradition, but even her sketch-like work already featured an expressive verve. Then she worked with a dentist's drill on the plates for a series of drypoints. She made linoleum cuts, lithographs and etchings. Most of these prints she printed in very small editions. She made embossed prints, also named scrap embossing, in editions of one only; these were appliqued with pieces of metal or cloth. Her Picasso-variations, inspired by the campaign 'Picassoanmalen (overpainting Picasso)' from the Engelhorn foundation Munich, were an ironical statement to the gallery owner Peter Luft who often expressed that her intentions resembled Picasso's. These are Pablo Picasso reproduction posters which she simply overpainted. Also notable is the already mentioned folder in memory of Franz Roh, a tribute which emphasizes friendship, closeness, and death.Works
Single-handed exhibition catalogs / artist diaries
The artist began to design her first exhibition catalogs in 1978. These are some kind of a retrospective, fashioned after an artist's diary, made out of collage-like paste ins of cutouts from earlier regular exhibition brochures and press reports. These catalogs have about 50 sheets each (measurements about 20 by 23 centimeters), which she fixated together with two sturdy brass screws. The exact edition is unknown. These artist diaries are related to FLUXUS books and have to be seen as independent works.Speaking boxes and objects
The first so-called "sprechende Kästen" (speaking boxes) she created in 1972. These are unique in their kind and not to be found by other object artists of that time. The boxes contain different objects, technical scrap which is moved motor-driven or commented acoustically with the help of an audio tape at the touch of a button. The artist developed her own manuals for these objects: 'The game begins. Grasp at the baffle collector and pull the ball down several times. At the same time you will see how the objects in the box slowly fluctuate according to their self-oscillation similar as a blast of air quietly moves the nature. Breathe deeply, keep playing with the pellets, listen, take up your thoughts, take the freedom to dream, forget your everyday life. Break away from the 'correctness' of the society, break away from the 'correctness' of the criticism, break away from the 'correctness' of science. All these are overrated correctnesses. Breathe deeply, play yourselves free, just be yourself." With these objects Hünerfauth portrays comprehensive human and ideological thoughts as everyday occurrences: the misery of war and its phenomena, the loneliness living in mass towers and building blocks of our satellite towns ('from countless windows eyes stare into emptiness'). She shows shivering grass and first love, demonstrations (the 'Occammensch') and nature idyll, philosophy and humor ('Glasknopfbäumchen'). An example of these speaking boxes is the box ''Blaue Pistole (Blue Pistol)'' which she created in 1973. It is filled with industrial scrap. Its endless audio tape plays the artist's voice reciting a text by Meta Kristall: "Blue pistol used with pleasure by a boy's hand, now rotten as scrap in the landscape, a butterfly rocking itself on it. Sharp gunshots invade Sunday's peace, like chocolates invade the affluent societies puss, maneuver drill a man says promising." Another box she crafted in 1983 is made from plexiglass with a collaged back cover. The audio tape with Hünerfauth's voice is urging with music and a text by Meta Kristall: "War! Your voice is the otherman dead, man shoot the otherman'. Otherman shoot...' Shots are fired, Meta Kristall is crying out: "Dead! Dead! Let the murdering be! Talk to the otherman .. Otherman talks to you..." Another major work is the PopArt related speaking object "Emanze" (Women's libber, 1990) which is brightly coloured on both front and back as well as ''Krieg – auch Tiere leiden'' (War animals suffer too, 1986) and also the three-dimensional installation ''Rocker's Tod (The death of the biker, 1989)''. The artist and gallery owner Peter Luft said Hünerfauth's art resembles Picasso's in spirit, wit, irony, simplicity, cogency and excursiveness. However, Luft believes that the artist transcends Picasso's stylistic devices precisely with the complexity of her speaking boxes: "The circle of her style is, as I feel, related to Picasso's. Of course, the shape is different; and so are the materials. While Picasso remains a painter and drawer, a designer of the surface, during most of his works, Irma Hünerfauth stepped out of the two-dimensionality to never to return. She is working three-dimensionally, in a sphere and sculpturesque. She is driving frottages coming from the graphics, ferro-montages coming from the sculptures. She loves ready-mades, combine painting and material pictures – just like Picasso. But beyond all this, she loves and practices: Contre-reliefs, machine arts, Objet trouvé and especially bruitism, which means the mixed medial synthesis of audio, literature, kinetics and at the same time theatrical staging. With presentations of this kind she is leaving Picasso far behind."Kinetic vibrational objects
Beginning in the 1970s, she created so-called vibrational objects. These are wires, buttons, cartridges; electrical panels and other finds, that intone music of the spheres at the touch of a button. Through these interactive dynamics the access to her poetic concept is eased for art lovers; nevertheless, she says, "my work must seem as abstruse to the majority of our society". Continuing with her words: "These vibrational objects are supposed to topple the fine and precious. Imagine this takes place at a jeweler's shop. The viewer is confronted with a composition falling apart. They are constructed with the purpose to cause the elements to shiver by touching a button. They are supposed to experience the discomfort of the destruction of the beautiful".Ferro-montages, Metal collages (Assemblage)
Hünerfauth's ferro-montages (a word invented by the artist) invaded a traditionally male artist's reserved domain. These are sculptures made from wealth garbage and scrap, like nickel-plated chrome car parts, bumpers, radiator hoods, steel ribs, steel discs, large threads, pipes, axle bearings and more. They are high-gloss objects, head-high figures and creations, which she assembled or welded together with the help of her husband. These artworks are reminiscent of religious cultural objects. The first of them – made in the late 1960s – are smaller sized bronze sculptures on a base or small table, and include ready-mades. Then, the figures became larger, for example the ''Iron- respectively Sunflower'' made from agricultural machine parts, ''Portrait of J.W.K.'' on a head-high column (grooved), ''Serpentina'', ''Portrait of Mrs. Heller'' and especially impressive 'I'nstance'' (1977), ''Black Butterfly'' so as the admonisher ''Ma(h)nuel'' – all free-standing statuary art. The most important of these ferro-montages bears the press-given title ''Occam-Mensch (Occam Human)'' and can be seen as her major artwork. The two meters high sculpture with gas mask, opened lungs and many symbolic exhaust pipes was created from original machine parts in 1971. It was exhibited publicly that year on the corner of Occam Street in Schwabing, a borough in the northern part of Munich. At that time the newspaper named it ''Occammensch (Occam human)'' and partly ridiculed his message. In 1990, about twenty years later, it was exhibited publicly again at theArtist's prayer books made of micro electronic scrap
After the death of her husband, Hünerfauth concentrated on smaller objects because these were easier to handle by herself. She created artist's prayer books by processing micro electronical scrap, garbage from computer hardware, electronic conductors and slim-sized control panels into small-dimensioned metal collages (Assemblage). The usage of this kind of material has to be regarded as unique. The objects are now 'silent objects' again. Their small formats force to observe and face Hünerfauth's formal, graphic and physical means and possibilities. The manner of structuring prompts the viewer to a behavior she asked for during the viewing of her early abstract painting, when she told the viewers in January 1960: "Get into the painting by scanning it with your eyes, the lines will lead you. I wish for the viewers to step out of themselves during the dialogue with the artwork and to newly find themselves in another sphere of conscience." The term 'The Artist's Prayer Books' already indicates that these artistic miniatures are meant to be ambiguous and provocative. The term is aiming at a type of text that was especially conceived for women and their intimate orientation towards God in the 19th century. Those books had a particularly magnificent design and were supposed to represent piety in public. The apparent artistry of Hünerfauth's 'The Artist's Prayer Books' still reminds of the original meaning, the doxology. Hünerfauth led a dialogue with herself and the public's expectations. Also the material (scrap) evokes reflectiveness: is the computer the new god, or the individual? For those who still did not understand, she added a motto to each artist's diary: "Don't think, wonder yourself!" "The creative force in the prayer books is so strong that it transforms the material, the application, into one single matter, which is ensouled by the personal view that possesses the same structure like her relief-like idols." Hünerfauth is a postwar artist of the so-called "lost generation", whose artworks sold mostly directly to private as well as public collections and thus seldom appeared at international art events or on the auction market during her lifetime. The rediscovery of her work allows now a new comprehensive perspective of her artistic oeuvre. Since 20 March 2018, two large paintings by Hünerfauth have been displayed at the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus Munich. The collection 'I'm a Believer. Pop Art and contemporary art from the Lenbachhaus and the KiCo Foundation' shows Hünerfauth's paintings together with works byExhibitions
* 1946 Kammerspiele, Munich. * 1947 BBK, Munich; Gedok, UNESCO building, Beirut, Lebanon. * 1959 Freude junger Kunst, Kunstverein, Munich; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France; Travelling exhibition modern prints, Frankenthal. * 1959-61 Große Kunstausstellung, Neue Gruppe, Haus der Kunst, Munich. * 1961 Solo exhibition Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich; Neue Darmstädter Sezession, Darmstadt; Nouvelle école européenne, Hessenhuis, Antwerp, Belgium; Vier deutsche Künstlerinnen, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, England; Gedok, Rom, Italy; Fachoberschule, Munich. * 1962 Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich; Gedok, Kunst am Bau, Stadtmuseum, München; Solo exhibition Gallery Kasper, Lausanne, Switzerland. * 1962/63 Travelling exhibition modern prints, Frankenthal. * 1962-65 Freunde junger Kunst, Kunstverein, Munich. * 1963 Frauen-Biennale, Paris, France; Internat. Aquarellausstellung, Städt. Museum, Friedrichshafen. * 1963-69 Herbstsalon, Haus der Kunst, Munich. * 1964 Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris, France. * 1965 'Gruppe 7' und 'Gruppe Spur', Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich; Travelling exhibition USA, Karl-Schurz-Gesellschaft 'Gruppe K', Casa, Munich. * 1966 'Querschnitt', Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich; Hommage à Franz Roh, Kunstverein, Munich; Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris, France. * 1967 'Querschnitt 67', Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich; Einzelausstellung: Gallery Christa Moering, Wiesbaden; 'Fleckenburger Gespräche', internationale Aspekte der Gegenwartskunst, Hochsauerland. * 1968 Kurfürstliches Gärtnerhaus 'Materialobjekte', Bonn. * 1971 Zeitgenössische französische und deutsche Graphik, Travelling exhibition South America, Goethe-Institut, São Paulo, Brazil; 'Europa 2000', B. H. Corner Gallery, London, England; Herbstsalon 71, Haus der Kunst, Munich. * 1971/72 Travelling exhibition, Kinetische Kunstobjekte, Römer Pelizaeus-Museum, Hildesheim, then 1972 Detmold and Hannover. * 1972 Zeichnung und Graphik aus 7 Jahrhunderten, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich; 'Prisma 72', Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn. * 1974 Apportin – Hilmar – Hünerfauth, Kunstverein, Munich; Einzelausstellung: Kurfürstliches Gärtnerhaus, Bonn. * 1975 Einzelausstellung: Goethe-Institut (Hünerfauth and Führer-Wolkenstein), Brussels, Belgium. * 1977 Solo exhibition: Gallery Walter Koch (Hünerfauth and Führer-Wolkenstein), Munich; Solo exhibition: Gallery Querschnitt (Hünerfauth and Führer-Wolkenstein), Braunschweig; Solo exhibition: Goethe - Institut (Hünerfauth and Führer-Wolkenstein), Brussels, Belgium; 'Picasso Anmalen', Engelhorn Stiftung, Grünwald Munich: Travelling exhibition Munich, Paris, Nancy, Toulouse, Lyon, Lille, Bordeaux, France. * 1979 Galerie im Ganserhaus, Objekt-Kästen, Wasserburg am Inn. * 1981 Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Düren. * 1983 'Ökoräume', Forum des Europa-Parliaments, Straßburg, Frankreich; End of year exhibition, Wasserburg am Inn; Solo exhibition: 'IRMAnipulations', Goethe-Institut, London. * 1984 Solo exhibition: Kulturzentrum am Gasteig, Künstlergebetbücher, Munich; Kulturzentrum Gasteig, Munich; 'Bayerische Kunst unserer Tage', Künstlerhaus, Wien, Austria; 'Klangobjekte', Sofia, Bulgaria; Kunst und Technik III, BMW-Galerie, Munich * 1985 Kunst und Technik III, BMW-Galerie, Berlin; Tage der neuen Musik, Klangskulpturen: Städtische Galerie, Würzburg; Kulturforum, Bonn; Kunstverein, Heidelberg; Spielboden, Dornbirn; Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Düren; Karmeliter Kloster, Frankfurt; Musik optisch, Spitäle, Würzburg; 'Kunstforum', Olympiadorf, München; Technik und Menschsein', St. Virgil, Salzburg, Austria; Bildräume', Arbeitskreis 68, Rathaus, Wasserburg am Inn; 'Kunstsalon 85', Haus der Kunst, Munich and Berlin. * 1986 Bayerische Kunst Unserer Tage', Ernst Museum, Budapest, Hungary; Kunst und Technik, BMW-Galerie, Munich and Berlin; 'Große Kunstausstellung', Rathaus, Wasserburg am Inn. * 1989 Umwelt-Mitwelt-Lebenswelt, Kulturzentrum am Gasteig, Munich. * 1994 Solo exhibition: Ignaz-Günther-Haus, Stadtmuseum, Munich. * 1995 Kunstverein Schloss Röderhof, Sachsen-Anhalt. * 1996 Solo exhibition: Bürgerhaus, Pullach; Solo exhibition: Museum Kloster 'Unser Lieben Frauen', Magdeburg; Große Kunstausstellung, Wasserburg am Inn. * 1998 Hünerfauth as a guest of honour at the Großen Kunstausstellung, Wasserburg am Inn. * 2018 Group exhibition, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich: 'I'm a Believer. Pop Art and contemporary art from the Lenbachhaus and the KiCo Foundation'. * 2019 Group exhibition: 'Straying from the Line', Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin. * 2021 Group exhibition: 'Fire demands its Fuel' curated by Elisa R. Linn & Lennart Wolff (KM Temporaer) at the invitation of Markus Lüttgen & Drei, Mönchengladbach. * 2022 Group exhibition: 15th edition of the Triennial of Small Sculpture Fellbach 'The Vibration of Things' curated by Elke aus dem Moore. * 2023 Solo exhibition: 'Speaking Boxes' curated by Elisa R. Linn & Lennart Wolff (KM Temporaer) SIMIAN, CopenhagenReferences
* Roh, Juliane, Eine Ausstellung zu wenig bekannter Münchner Maler, 13. Febr. - 15. März 1959, Gesellschaft der Freunde junger Kunst, Munich, 1959 (in German). * Pellex, Georges, in: Das Werk, Winterthur, 1960 (in German). * Roh, Franz, Zur Malerei von Irma Hünerfauth, in: Die Kunst und das schöne Heim 58, pp. 365–367, Munich, 1960 (in German). * Lexikon Münchner Prominenz ictionary of prominent people in Munich VDM Verlag, Munich, 1962 (in German). * Roh, Juliane, in: Das Kunstwerk 7/XIV, 1963 (in German). * Scott, John, Abstract Artistry, in: Building Industry News, London, 1963. * Mazenod, D., Artistes Contemporains ontemporary Artists Paris, 1964 (in French). * Schindler, Ottheinrich, Neue deutsche Graphik, Frankenthal, 1965 (in German). * Roh, Juliane, in: Bogawus, Münster, 1966 (in German). * Graphic Society Annual, New York, 1968. * Römer Pelizaeus Museum (ed.), Kinetische Kunstobjekte, Hildesheim, 1968 (in German). * Niggl, Thomas, d' Orville, Christian, Prem, Heimrad (eds.), Omnibus News, Munich, 1968 (in German). * Roh, Juliane, in: Das Kunstwerk 22:1968/69(9/10), p. 82 (in German). * Roh, Juliane, Hünerfauth - Wolkenstein, in: Das Kunstwerk 6/1977 (in German). * Röthel, Hans Konrad, Hünerfauth -Wolkenstein, Ausstellungskatalog Galerie Walter Koch, (cat.) Munich, 1977 (in German). * Irma Hünerfauth "Ulmer Theater. 12.10.-15.11.1980." (exh. cat.). Gebilde aus Metall und Kram, Ulm, 1980 (in German). * Evers, Ulrika, Lexikon Deutsche Künstlerinnen des 20. Jahrhunderts ictionary of German Women Artists of the 20th Century Hamburg, 1983 (in German) . * Irma Hünerfauth, Peter Lufft and Christoph Wiedemann. IRMAnipulations. Publisher Antje Kunstmann, Munich, 1990 (in German) . * Götze, Gerhard, Die kinetische Künstlerin, Munich Mosaik, May/June 1988 (in German). * Ottomeyer, H. / Ziffer, A., Möbel des Neoklassizismus und der Neuen Sachlichkeit (cat.) Stadtmuseum, Munich, 1993 (in German). * Informelle und expressiv-abstrakte Graphik der 50er und 60er Jahre (cat.) Pfalz-Galerie, Kaiserslautern, 1993 (in German). * Netta, I. (ed.), Das Gedächtnis öffnet seine Tore. Die Kunst der Gegenwart im Lenbachhaus Munich (cat.) Ostfildern-Ruit, 1999 (in German). * Buhlmann, B. E. (ed.), Dreidimensionale Werke im Besitz der Pfalz-Galerie Kaiserslautern (cat.), Kaiserslautern, 2000 (in German). * Dollen, Ingrid von der, Malerinnen im 20. Jahrhundert, Bildkunst der "verschollenen Generation" oman Painter of the 20th Century, Painted works of the Lost Generation Publisher Hirmer Verlag, Munich, 2000 (in German) . * Partsch, S., AKL, World Biographical Dictionary of Artists, vol. 75. De Gruyter Saur, Berlin, 2012–13. . * Schinkel Pavillon Berlin 'Straying from the Line' exhibition catalogue, April 2019. * 15th edition of the Triennial of Small Sculpture Fellbach 'The Vibration of Things' exhibition catalogue, June 2022, p. 73.Notes