Otto Zitko is probably one of the most outstanding and idiosyncratic artists of his generation, whose works oscillate between a radical refusal of the hierarchy of representation and convulsive, gestural compositional processes.
On the basis of selected examples, the discussion will illuminate the exciting development of his paintings from the impasto-figurative beginning – with the influence of the paintings of Richard Gerstl – to his non-representational installations that sprawl as endless lines constituting space. It is precisely the examination of the free-flowing line and thus an apparent “scribble” that forms the interface to the thinking of Ludwig Wittgenstein, who often takes up and questions the superficial senselessness of an arbitrary line in his notes in an exemplary manner. The “Spirograms” shown in the exhibition also testify to Zitko’s tireless desire to experimentally expand his approach to drawing – as here to a scientific-photographic pictorial level.

Curator Gregor Schmoll in conversation with Otto Zitko