Heinz Gappmayr is among the artist-theoreticians whose texts and artworks have been focusing since the 1960s on the connections between the visual and linguistic production of meaning. His works aim to place words, concepts, and phrases on paper, canvases, and walls in such a way that their meaning also finds expression in their compositional arrangement—to make language visibly do what it means. But as there are always several possible ways of linking linguistic form and linguistic meaning, any belief in a single, immutable visual identity of language finally proves illusionary. In Gappmayr’s work, above all terms of being, of becoming, and of passing away are “portrayed” in dynamic sequences of letters and words.
Words signifying place are visualized by corresponding positioning within the
pictorial field; geometrical forms and colors are represented by tautological
or contradictory linguistic and symbolic equivalents.
Heinz Gappmayr
* 1925 in Innsbruck, Austria
lives and works in Innsbruck
Exhibitions (selection)
2005 Heinz Gappmayr zum 80. Geburtstag: Wandtexte, Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, A
2004 Visuelle Texte, Mies van der Rohe Haus, Berlin, D
2003 Galerie Widauer, Innsbruck, A
2000 Farben, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, A
2000 Phototexte, Galerie Lindner, Wien, A
2000 Paintings + Art-in-Architecture, Galerie Dorothea van der Koelen, Mainz, D
1998 Die weisse Galerie, Köln (mit Fred Sandback), D
1997 Müksarnok Budapest [Kunsthalle Budapest], Budapest, H
1997 Kunsthalle Wien, A
1996 Janus Avivson Gallery, London, GB
1996 Heinz Gappmayr – Bildtexte, Galerie Eugen Lendl, Graz, A
selected bibliography:
Peter Weiermair (Hg.), von für über Heinz Gappmayr. Verlag für moderne Kunst, Zirndorf, 1985.
Dorothea van der Koelen, Das Werk Heinz Gappmayrs. Lit Verlag, Münster, 1994. Ingrid Simon, Vom Aussehen der Gedanken. Heinz Gappmayr und die konzeptuelle Kunst. Ritter Verlag, Klagenfurt, 1995.
Opus 2, Werkverzeichnis1991-1996, Chorus Verlag, Mainz, München.1997
Text Farbe Raum, Folio Verlag, Wien, Bozen. 2000/2001
Siegfried J. Schmidt (Hg.), Zwischen Platon und Mondrian. Heinz Gappmayrs konzeptuelle Poetik. Ritter Verlag, Klagenfurt, 2005.
Opus 3, Werkverzeichnis 1997-2004, Chorus Verlag, Mainz, München.2005
