(born in Weyer/Enns in 1953)
“Holzkarren”, on the reverse signed, dated S. Anzinger 97 and titled with “Holzkarren”, glue-based distemper on canvas, 70 x 80 cm, framed

Exhibited and coloured and b/w ill.:
Siegfried Anzinger, 20er Haus, Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, 1998, p. 151, (Reg.88) and p. 28/88

Provenance:
Private Collection, Netherlands

Theory and practice

In his conversation with Wilfried Dickhoff, Anzinger also touched upon the current doubts about the contemporary relevance of painting: “We are always concerned with the questionability of painting and turning in a circle with regard to the basic question: Are we still allowed to paint or are we allowed to paint once more or not allowed to paint once again? You won’t believe what would be possible in painting if we would shorten the discourse a bit in order to reach land instead of constantly stressing that there is no land in sight. Too much time is being wasted with reflecting about painting instead of reflecting “within” painting. One underestimates the possibilities that may develop precisely from missing means. We can no longer paint a bouquet of roses and give it to our beloved. But precisely that would be something really desirable, to regain the freedom of using it but without using it as a cynical punch against the art of others, against the art of us and next to us. (…)
The cowardly thinking about reassurance has become a problem in art. I do not want to complain about it. If there can be any reproach at all, it is certainly not directed against the theoreticians – this is their work and I have the utmost respect for any thinking – but against the artists themselves and especially against the painters. What I reproach them for is that they lose themselves in a risk-free marketing, a constant fearful searching for reassurance with regard to the current theoretical justifications and prohibitions, that they do not really take any risks, that they do not contradict themselves, that they do not dissolve themselves in the struggle and fight for a few hues; that they do not really open up.”
Siegfried Anzinger Talking to Wilfried Dickhoff- from the mentioned literature