René Luckhardt
13 Apr - 19 May 2012
© René Luckhardt
untitled (EGON SCHIELE, LONDON 1996)
graphite pencil, oil on canvas, framed
110 x 64 cm
approx. 1993
untitled (EGON SCHIELE, LONDON 1996)
graphite pencil, oil on canvas, framed
110 x 64 cm
approx. 1993
RENÉ LUCKHARDT
EGON SCHIELE, LONDON, 1996
13 April - 19 May 2012
What happens when a young artist, who profoundly explored the work of Egon Schiele during his student years, is discovered by a much older curator? And what if the student and the curator are, in fact, one and the same person?
René Luckhardt is an artist. And a curator. In 1996, long before his artwork gained attention when it was exhibited in Galerie Bernd Kugler, he studied at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. During this time René Luckhardt created a series of photos in which he engaged intensely with the oeuvre of Egon Schiele. Schiele’s work had, even before that time, always exerted a magical influence over the young artist with the result that René Luckhardt, at times, adopted his style of painting. In the London photo series, Luckhardt imagined himself once again into Schiele – with the help of the medium of photography. Using Schiele poses as a starting point, Luckhardt improvised in front of the camera thus presenting his own body as a painting. However, the more than 140 photo negatives which he created subsequently disappeared from mind and memory.
Years later, alongside his work as an artist, René Luckhardt also made a name for himself as a curator with his avant-garde salon Wonderloch Kellerland in which he organised, supervised or hosted up to 20 exhibitions every year. When, in 2012, he suddenly found himself holding his own series of photos in his hands, he was astonished at the “young man who had grappled so intensely with Schiele back then in 1996”.
Originally, at that time, unable to exhibit the work since he had “not yet attained the necessary detachment to an intense period of development – a condition that every artist presumably knows”, Luckhardt is now “making good” as it were. Galerie Bernd Kugler is delighted to be able to exhibit a selection of the early photos and a painting in a new presentation by the artist-curator.
EGON SCHIELE, LONDON, 1996
13 April - 19 May 2012
What happens when a young artist, who profoundly explored the work of Egon Schiele during his student years, is discovered by a much older curator? And what if the student and the curator are, in fact, one and the same person?
René Luckhardt is an artist. And a curator. In 1996, long before his artwork gained attention when it was exhibited in Galerie Bernd Kugler, he studied at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. During this time René Luckhardt created a series of photos in which he engaged intensely with the oeuvre of Egon Schiele. Schiele’s work had, even before that time, always exerted a magical influence over the young artist with the result that René Luckhardt, at times, adopted his style of painting. In the London photo series, Luckhardt imagined himself once again into Schiele – with the help of the medium of photography. Using Schiele poses as a starting point, Luckhardt improvised in front of the camera thus presenting his own body as a painting. However, the more than 140 photo negatives which he created subsequently disappeared from mind and memory.
Years later, alongside his work as an artist, René Luckhardt also made a name for himself as a curator with his avant-garde salon Wonderloch Kellerland in which he organised, supervised or hosted up to 20 exhibitions every year. When, in 2012, he suddenly found himself holding his own series of photos in his hands, he was astonished at the “young man who had grappled so intensely with Schiele back then in 1996”.
Originally, at that time, unable to exhibit the work since he had “not yet attained the necessary detachment to an intense period of development – a condition that every artist presumably knows”, Luckhardt is now “making good” as it were. Galerie Bernd Kugler is delighted to be able to exhibit a selection of the early photos and a painting in a new presentation by the artist-curator.