Description

The broad range of her technical abilities fully justifies Heliane Wiesauer-Reiterer’s designation as a “universal artist.” She works as a painter, printmaker, photographer, and sculptor; her formats range from intimate pieces to monumental works, and her practice results both in large-scale series and in singular, autonomous works.

Fragmentation, articulation, division, and reduction to the essential core define Wiesauer-Reiterer’s work; it is concerned with condensations—with essential being, revealed through a focus on the head, the torso, or abstracted structures. Her aim is to capture basic emotional conditions, permeated by a quiet melancholy. The human figure frequently appears bent, falling, or fragmented, serving as a metaphor for an exposed and vulnerable existence.

In landscapes and architectural works as well, sensorially perceptible reality forms the point of departure, yet it is divided and reduced to such an extent that only an associative residue remains—one that still contains the whole and can more readily integrate into the experiential horizon of viewers. In this way, pictorial communication of a high order emerges.

Wiesauer-Reiterer is one of the few female painters associated with the “Neue Wilde” movement of the 1980s, a reductionist without belonging to the Neo-Geo movement of the 1990s, a materials artist without affiliation to Arte Povera, and a seeker of traces who recognizes individual qualities in found materials. Stone, for example, is a partner in her creative process: its inherent character serves as the starting point for reinterpretation and transformation.

Her profound affinity with nature informs all groups of works; her photographs likewise convey this blend of admiration and concern, pursuing structure and reduction through inversion, mirroring, solarization, and tonal modulation. As one of the most significant artists of her generation, she enables visual experiences of exceptional depth. A generous donation to the Wien Museum now makes it possible to present a high-caliber cross-section of her entire oeuvre.

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