Otto Zitko
Retroprospektiv

The title Otto Zitko has given to his exhibition at the Lentos Kunstmuseum, ​“Retroprospektiv”, refers to the artist’s gaze whose orientation towards the future can only be understood in the light of its development and sharpening in past encounters. This collision between ​“prospective” and ​“retrospective” manifests itself in the selection of exhibits which is comprised both of works from the early 1980s and from present production. The majority of works are on loan from various Austrian collections.

Otto Zitko’s oeuvre is punctuated by changes of the picture carriers and of drawing and painting utensils. It comprises early oil-on-canvas paintings executed with bold impasto, fumages, reverse glass paintings, wooden panels, large-format aluminium panels and a great number of site-specific murals. Paper as a picture carrier is omnipresent in Zitko’s entire oeuvre, running through it like a golden thread from early narrative drawings remarkable for the subtlety of their execution to the most recent large-format works with their expressive gestures.

Otto Zitko, born in Linz in 1959, studied at the Universität für angewandte Kunst in Vienna. He has been awarded a great number of prizes, such as the Msgr.-Otto-Mauer-Preis, the Preis der Stadt Wien für bildende Kunst and the Kulturpreis für bildende Kunst of the Province of Upper Austria.

Curator: Hemma Schmutz