Department of
Art After 1960
Collection Manager
Alexandra Schantl
Office of the Lower Austrian Federal Government, Department of Art and Culture
A-3100 St. Pölten, Kulturdepot, Schanze 5
noe-kunstsammlung@noel.gv.at
+43/2742/9005/13215
Team
Alexandra Leitzinger (registry)
Julia Rennhofer (library)
Mag. Andrea Zobernig (library)
Lukas Stolz (library)
Sandra Weissenböck (administration)
Susanne Wöhrer (administration)
Collection History
The curatorial department “Art After 1960” of the State Collections of Lower Austria mainly comprises works that have been acquired since the 1950s to support artists who were either born or are based in Lower Austria. Since the mid-1970s, the department’s acquisition activities have steadily increased. Important additions to the collection have been made through donations, estate bequests, and acquisitions in auction houses and galleries (since 2002, these have been conducted mainly within the framework of the federal gallery funding program).
The Collection/Main Emphasis
The “Art After 1960” collection comprises paintings, sculptures, drawings, graphic prints, photographs, time-based media, installations, and textile works.
Generally, the collection endeavors to document the creative process of important artists on the basis of quality works from various periods to give visitors a sense of the respective oeuvre’s evolution—and also of various artistic phenomena in the national and international context that were typical for the time. Another focal point is the development of the collection’s existing thematic, stylistic, or media-specific fields.
Extensive individual collections are accorded special significance, such as the Leo Navratil Collection, comprising about 3,000 works by artists from Gugging, or works from the private collection of the artist Christa Hauer, created in connection with the Viennese Galerie im Griechenbeisl, which she managed from 1960 to 1971. Among the highlights in the medium of photography is a donation by Elfriede Mejchar, whose life work covers a broad spectrum, as it contains photographs of great cultural-historical significance as well as her artistic studio works.
Furthermore, the State Collections of Lower Austria continue to receive generous donations from internationally renowned artists such as Adolf Frohner, Arnulf Rainer, Daniel Spoerri, Erwin Wurm, and others.
An extensive library features special literature customized to the collection holdings.
Publications
So far, the curatorial department “Art After 1960” has published companions to thematic or monographic exhibition projects at the Landesmuseum Niederösterreich and as part of the series ZEIT KUNST NIEDERÖSTERREICH. From 2018 onward, this function is carried out by the Landesgalerie Niederösterreich in Krems.
Renate Bertlmann (*1943)
"Messerschnullerhände mit Kubus 6", 1981,
gelatin silver print, 41,8 x 31,8cm,
Inv.Nr. KS-20868/2,
© Landessammlungen NÖ
Bernhard Tragut (*1957),
"Für einen Tag", 2016,
Wood, Inv.-Nr. KS-22707/1-2,
© Landessammlungen NÖ
Currently presented in:
Sehnsuchtsräume
25.5.2019 - 19.04.2020
Museum Gugging
www.gugging.at
