Wolfgang Walkensteiner was born in Klagenfurt in 1949. From 1967 to 1968 he studied architecture with Norbert Schlesinger at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna, from 1968 to 1973 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna with Max Weiler. In 1974 he received the Austrian State Scholarship for Fine Arts.
In his paintings between 1974 and 1975 Walkensteiner dealt intensively with Weiler’s art. “Paintings like Morgenbaum, Im Dickicht, or Die Nacht des Baumes, like the watercolors floating in the white of the paper, adopt the thematic, as well as the painterly style, the artistic formal language of Weiler’s characteristic landscape paintings.” – Silvie Steiner [1] at the 37th Biennale in Venice was represented by Walkensteiner in 1976 with his painting “The Night of the Tree”, Germany with the installation “Tram Stop / Tram Stop / Fermata del Tram” (1961-1976) by Joseph Beuys.
Between 1976 and 1980 Walkensteiner devoted himself to installations and works that have a spatial reference. In the series “Interiors” (1977-1978), he still used the two-dimensional image surface, a year later object installations were created. “In addition to impressions from the examination of the art of Joseph Beuys’ and Marcel Duchamps, these works also reflect on a gestural, actionist position.” -Silvie Steiner [2] In 1980 he returned to painting. In his self-portraits of the series “Triangle, caput mortuum – a secret anatomy” Walkensteiner finally broke away from Weiler’s formal language.
The background of his figurative painting mostly remained solid until the mid-1990s. The figures stand out clearly from the background. At the end of the 1990s, the figures partially dissolve in the painting ground, the background is of more painterly interest.
Walkensteiner has been a member of the Carinthian Art Association since 1972 and a member of the Society of Visual Artists in Vienna since 1994. From 2000 to 2002 he was a cultural advisory board for the fine arts of Carinthia. 2000 to 2009 Vice President of the Carinthian Art Association.
As a tribute to the writer Gert Jonke, who died in 2009, Walkensteiner installed his work Der ferne Klang in the form of 9 panels in the Robert Musil Literature Museum in Klagenfurt.
Walkensteiner lives and works in Vienna.
Prices
1972 Silver Füger Medal for Graphics, Vienna
1972 Paul Troger Prize for Painting, Vienna
1972 INTART three-country biennial, Udine, 1st prize
1972 Grand Concours International de Peinture, Musée 2000 Luxemburg, purchase price
1973 Promotional Award for Fine Arts of the State of Carinthia
1973 Golden Füger Medal for Graphics, Vienna
1973 Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, master school award
1975 Dr. Leopold Goess Prize for Fine Arts
Personal exhibitions
1971 Gallery M 59, Graz
1977 gallery at the Stubenbastei, Vienna
1986 Atelier 2000, Vienna
1986 Galerie BINZ 39, Zurich
1996 Municipal Gallery, Lienz
2000 Galerie Hofstätter, Vienna
2002 Gallery Peithner-Lichtenfels, Vienna
2005 Gorenski Muzej, Kranj, Slovenia
2005 Galerija Prešernove Hiše, Kranj, Slovenia
2005 Galerija V Mestni Hiši, Kranj, Slovenia
2005 Mala Galerija Kranj, Slovenia
2007 “Embodiment”, Elisabeth Michitsch Gallery, Vienna
2009 “manic masses”, Künstlerhaus Vienna, Vienna
2009 “G for Jonke”, Literature Museum, Klagenfurt
2011 “mahler cometix”, Musikforum Viktring, Klagenfurt
2012 “OGU”, Sala Terrena in Heiligenkreuzerhof, Vienna
2013 Center of Contemporary Art M17, Kiev
2013 Eurogold Art Gallery, Zhitomir (UKR)
2014 “Greetings from Tel Aviv”, Israel
2015 “ce soir”, forum mozartplatz, Vienna
2015 “almost nothing”, MMKK Museum of Modern Art Carinthia, Klagenfurt
2017 “LOCATION AND PLACE”, Palais de Beaux Arts BOZAR, Brussels
2018 Galerie du Tableau, Marseilles
2018 Kunstraum Lindenhof, Raabs-Thaya
2018 “this troubled reason, sometimes”, Rudolfiner private clinic, Vienna
2019 “DIRECTOR´s CUT”, Hall of Mirrors of the Carinthian Goverment, Klagenfurt
2019 works from the work block “DIRECTOR´s CUT”, Amthof Feldkirchen, Felkrichen
2020 “nothing you see” Stadtgalerie, Wiener Neustadt
2020 Kunsthalle Leoben, Leoben
Participation in exhibitions
1972 INTART three-country biennial, Udine
1972 Musée 2000, Luxembourg
1976 37th Venice Biennale, Italy
1980 “Correcti Altudi – 10 Artisti della Carincia”, Austrian Cultural Institute in Rome
1982 Institut Autrichien, Paris
1991 Cité des Arts Internationales, Paris
1994 Taidemuseo, Lapinlahden, Finland
1998 Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris
2001 Salon d’Automne, Paris
2002 Biennial Intart, Ljubljana, Slovenia
2005 “Companions”, Galeria Prisma, Bolzano, Italy
2007 “interchanged. 2”, K / haus Galerie, Künstlerhaus Vienna
2009 “The distant sound”, tribute to Gert Jonke, Robert Musil Literature Museum Klagenfurt
2010 Foundation of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Almaty (KAS)
2011 focus collection 02. VIEW FACTS. Images of people, Museum of Modern Art Carinthia, Klagenfurt
2013 Cover-up_curated by Anthony Hudek, Liverpool Tate Gallery, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna
2013 focus collection 04. ANIMALS, Museum of Modern Art Carinthia, Klagenfurt
2014 Museum Angerlehner, Wels
2014 WienOne by Galerie Robert Weber, Munich, brick-5, Vienna
2014 TwinTownArt 1 Klagenfurt – Dachau “Remember”, Alpen-Adria-Galerie, Klagenfurt
2015 Burning questions, Künstlerhaus Vienna
2015 TwinTownArt 2 – Dachau “Remember”, artist association, Dachau
2016 Eye Glances, Museum Liaunig, Neuhaus | Suha (AUT)
2018 “Frame tilted at an angle. The Liaunig Collection in motion”, Museum Liaunig, Neuhaus / Suha (AUT)
2019 “Dedicated to the future”, Museum Liaunig, Neuhaus / Suha (AUT)
Publicly owned works
City of Vienna Collection
Federal Ministry of Art, Vienna
Carinthian State Gallery
Museum of Modern Art Carinthia MMKK, A
City of Klagenfurt Collection
City of Villach Collection
City of Lienz Collection
Mestna Galerija, Ljubljana, SLO
Mestna-Galerija, Ljubljana
New gallery at the Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz
Austrian gallery, Upper Belvedere Vienna
Kastejev Museum, Almaty, KAS
Liaunig Museum, Neuhaus | Suha, A
Bernhard and Elisabeth Hainz Collection, Vienna, A
Literature
Thomas Zaunschirm: Wolfgang Walkensteiner. In: Aspects of the landscape. New gallery at the Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz and Kärntner Landesgalerie, Klagenfurt, 1974.
Lee Springschitz: Walkensteiner. In: Hoflehner, Kedl, Wukounig, Walkensteiner. XXXVII Biennale di Venezia 1976. Austria, Vienna, 1976.
Arnulf Rohsmann: Wolfgang Walkensteiner “opening the center”. In: Sechserlei, Künstlerhaus, Klagenfurt, 1981/82.
Wolfgang Walkensteiner. Hole in the body. In. Michael Kos, Egon Straszer (ed.): THINGS, in themselves. Wieser publishing house, Klagenfurt 2004.
Marko Košan in “Head for Heads”, Gorenski Muzej, Kranj, Slovenia, 2005
Bernd Czechner and Wolfgang Walkensteiner: The pictures in the head, the painter in the ear. In: Gorenski Muzej, Kranj, Slovenia, 2005.
Bernd Czechner: Wolfgang Walkensteiner. In: Vernissage, Vienna 2005.
Silvie Aigner: Body’s Short Stories. In: The Bridge, Klagenfurt, 2005.
Silvie Aigner: Crossover II. Künstlerhaus Klagenfurt, 2005.
Yves Kobry: Walkensteiner’s biomorphism in PARNASS, March 2007.
