Formulated
Convergences of Writing and Image

The exhibition distributed among several institutions seeks shared intersections: writers who draw – visual artists who write, works conjoining both modes and thus demonstrating a smooth transition between two genres of creative expression.

Three institutions have joined together for this genre-crossing art project: the Lentos, the renowned literature institution StifterHaus Linz, and the Upper Austrian artists association MAERZ. Writing and image are cultural techniques that serve to leave traces of thoughts, either for oneself or for others and the insights and knowledge of posterity. The margins of writing and image confront us with interesting processes of perception. What happens if you try to read a drawing or grasp texts as images? The codes are different. The chances of success are consequently low. Yet borderline phenomena in the sense of what is not (yet) graphical and what is not (yet) textual and combinations of writing and image suggest manifold associations.

The exhibition in the Lentos shows graphic works from the 20th and 21st century from the museum’s own collection, which are supplemented with contemporary positions of young artists. Autographs from Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt and Alfred Kubin are included in the exhibition as visual artifacts. Confronted with visual artistic works by Pierre Alechinsky, Henri Michaux or Othmar Zechyr, they imbue the exhibition with the potential of tension that alternates between the contents of written notations and their artistic view quality. A substantial contribution to the exhibition is a selection from a collection comprising over 300 Art Brut works from Gugging.

Curator: Brigitte Reutner