Body and soul
Over the years, Gundi Dietz has successively reduced her art works, which evidence both a general idea as well as a personally defined authorship, to their essential form. Her creatures are always more than mere depiction and never a naturalistic representation. They show the artist’s world of experience: her knowledge and discernment, her understanding and interpretation of cultural and individual experiences. Gundi Dietz’s world is one in which space and time never entirely belong to the present moment, but are also part of the past and the future. In her work we can discern moods that are not bounded by the limits of time.
Gundi Dietz, who was born in Vienna, initially studied to become a fashion designer. She went on to complete studies in ceramic sculpture at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna in 1969, where she then spent an additional year in the master class for design theory. In 1982 she trained as a life mask sculptor in Berlin and Los Angeles. Since 1973 she has been creating her art works in a succession of different studios. The move from one studio to the next has always been indispensable for the development of her work, being closely linked to change and artistic renewal.
Since the beginning of her artistic practice, Gundi Dietz has not only worked with metal and stone, but mainly with porcelain, a material which has been largely marginalized in the contemporary art world. Here, she is able to manage all formats, from the tiny netsuke and her remarkable collection of iridescent beetles to sculptures in sizes technically and formally unique for free form porcelain works and large sculptures in marble, bronze, aluminum and cast cement. The exceptional quality of the brittle and extremely difficult to handle porcelain with respect to clarity, lucidity, luster, and the skin-like silkiness of the surface has made it a preferred material for the realization of her artistic ideas. The different methods available to develop forms with porcelain, the unforeseeable and the risk involved as well as the experimental and open work processes are all decisive for her, in that they pose singular artistic challenges. The handling of the raw porcelain material, a material which hardly allows for correction and whose final appearance is only determined during the actual firing in the kiln, requires virtuosity, a great amount of concentration and an imagination refined through uncountable experiments as well as many years of experience.
Gundi Dietz’s animated figures display a constant ambivalence, which lends them a striking presence. They appear to be strong and vulnerable, introverted and extroverted, buoyant and subtle, attractive and irritating, are tangible and yet elusive. Through their bearing, their show of strength and vitality, their self-assurance and individuality one can recognize a kinship with the artist beyond her role as their creator. Each figure is unique. Form, proportion and details are as harmonious as they are inventive and evidence her exceptional mastery, both in handling the material and in the realization of artistic intentions. Gundi Dietz does not intend to create something that is merely pleasing. She does not make a clear and simple separation between beautiful and ugly, between repulsive or attractive; each creature is both, has its dignity and its wounds.
Hanspeter Dähler
Biography
- 1942 geboren in Wien, Österreich
- 1966–69 Studium der keramischen Plastik, Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst, Wien
- 1969–70 Meisterklasse für Gestaltungslehre
- seit 1973 freischaffend
- 1982 Ausbildung zur Maskenbildnerin in Berlin
Awards
- 1982 Preis des Landes Niederösterreich
- 1983 Preis der Stadt Wien
- 1993 Silberne Ehrennadel des Landes Niederösterreich
- 2001 Verleihung des Berufstitels “Professor” im Wiener Bundeskanzleramt
- 2001 Silberne Ehrennadel, Maria Enzersdorf
- 2007 Grand Prix World Exhibition for Miniatur Ceramics, Zagreb
- 2009 Goldene Medaille Künstlerhaus Wien
Exhibitions (selection)
- 1975 Galerie am Graben, Vienna (A)
- 1979 Tiffani, New York (USA)
- 1981 Gallery Terracotta, Groningen (NL)
- 1982 Galerie Schneider, Freiburg (D) / Galerie am Graben, Vienna (A) / Galerie am Neumarkt 17, Zürich (CH)
- 1985 Ankrum Gallery, L.A. (USA)
- 1997 Galerie bei der Albertina, Vienna (A) / Galerie KOV, Zürich (CH)
- 2001 Landesgalerie-Schloß Mondsee (OÖ) (A)
- 2002 Galerie Menotti, Baden (A)
- 2005 Galerie Kunstforum Solothurn (CH) / Ferrin Gallery, Lenox MA / SOFA, NY ( USA) / Tong-In Gallery, Seoul (KR)
- 2007 Galerie Elisabeth Michitsch, Vienna (A)
- 2008 Galerie Chiz, Pittsburgh, USA / Galerie Kunstforum Solothurn (CH) / Museo MAC Arte
Contemporaneo Santiago (CL) - 2009 Galerie Arte Espazio, Santiago (CL)
MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art, Rosario (RA) - 2011 Galerie Kunstforum Solothurn (CH) / Galerie Progress Belgrad (SRB)
- 2013 Parc du Musée de Carouge (CH) / Galerie Espace Diamono, Carouge (CH) / Art Room Würth Böheimkirchen (A)
- 2014 Museu del Cantir Argentona Barcelona (ES)
- 2015 Galerie Kunstforum Solothurn (CH) / Kammerhofmuseum Gmunden (A)
- 2016 Musée Ariana Genf (CH)
Group exhibitions (selection)
- 1975 Künstlerhaus, Wien (A)
- 1979 Keramik Museum, Budapest (HU)
- 1980 Museum Applied Arts, Wien (A)
- 1981 Galerie van Boehlen, Amsterdam (NL)
- 1983 Art Basel (Galerie Lang, Wien (A)
- 1989 Konfrontationen (Messepalast, Vienna (A)
- 1990 Keramion, Frechen (D)
- 1991 Configura, Erfurt (D)
- 1993 Künstlerbunker, Leverkusen (D)
- 1995 EDO, Paris (F)
- 1996 Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipeh (TW) / Prefectural Art Museum, Saga (J)
- 1998 Galerie Marianne Heller, Heidelberg (D)
- 1999 Galerie Kunstforum Kirchberg (CH) / European Ceramic, Nottinghampshire (GB)
- 2000 Galerie Kunstforum Kirchberg (CH) / Keramion, Frechen (D) / Galerie Heiligenkreuzerhof, Vienna (A) / Stadtmuseum, Györ (HU)
- 2001 Biennale, Icheon-Museum (KR)
- 2003 Künstlerhaus Wien (A) / Galerie Ingrith Desmeth, Heule (B) / Galerie Kunstforum Kirchberg (CH) / Biennale, Icheon-Museum (KR)
- 2004 Landesmuseum, St/Pölten (A)
- 2005 Biennale, Icheon (KR)
- 2006 AIC Exhibition, Riga (LV)
- 2007 Galerie Kunstforum Solothurn (CH)
- 2008 Galerie Kunstforum Solothurn (CH) / Galerie Artworks, Antwerpen (B) / Biennale Exibition Xi‘an (CN) / Lineart Gent (B)
- 2009 Galerie Kunstforum Solothurn (CH) / Galerie van Campen & Rochtus, Antwerpen (B) / Museum Bellerive, Zürich (CH)
- 2010 Galerie Kunstforum Solothurn (CH) / Musée national de Céramique, Sévres (F)
- 2012 Reflection, Kunstforum Solothurn@station8, Zuzwil (CH) / New Mexico Museum of Arts, Santa Fe (USA) / Projekt Wasserskulpturen, Mödling (A)
- 2014 AIC Exhibition, Dublin (IRL) / European Ceramic Context Bornholm (DK)
- 2015 Augartenmuseum Wien (A)
- 2017 Mittaka City Gallery of Art, Tokio (J)
- 2018 objects in mirror are closer than they appear / heads & busts, Galerie Kunstforum Solothurn (CH)
Works in public collections
- Museum für angewandte Kunst, Wien / Cooper Hewitt, New York / Kunstgewerbemuseum, Prag / Federico Fellini Center, Rom / Mary Guggenheim, Paris / Herbert von Karajan Center, Wien / Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea / Grace Kelly Foundation, Monaco / Musée Ariana, Genf / Museum der Niederösterreichischen Landesregierung / Choson Royal Museum, Kwangju, Korea / Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien, Die Sammlung / Prefectural Art Museum, Saga, Japan / Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipeh, Taiwan / Gaolin International Artmuseum, Jingdezhen, China / ASU Art Museum, Arizona, USA