RUDOLF WACKER

Magic and Abysses of Reality

30.10.2024–16.02.2025 | Level -1

The Leopold Museum is dedicating a comprehensive retrospective exhibition to the multi-faceted oeuvre of Rudolf Wacker (1893–1939) as one of the most eminent Austrian contributions to New Objectivity in Europe. Featuring around 250 exhibits, Rudolf Wacker. Magic and Abysses of Reality retraces the development of the Vorarlberg painter and draftsman, highlights thematic emphases of his oeuvre and illustrates his works’ artistic quality and technical perfection. In his art, Wacker focused on his immediate surroundings, on the “magic of the everyday”, which he condensed in his still lifes, on the landscapes of his hometown, on female nudes and self-portraits.

The Vorarlberg artist’s life and his work were inextricably linked with the socio-political events of the 1910s to the 1930s. In 1914, World War I led the diligent art student from Weimar to the Eastern front, and subsequently for many years into war captivity in Russia. Having regained his freedom, Wacker’s expressive style reached early climaxes in the medium of drawing. In the mid-1920s, he developed an independent variant of the style of New Objectivity, examples of which enter into a dialogue with select works by exponents of German New Objectivity, including Albert Birkle, Otto Dix, Alexander Kanoldt, Anton Räderscheidt, Georg Schrimpf and Gustav Wunderwald. During the rise of National Socialism in the 1930s, Rudolf Wacker created encrypted still lifes, which, in a subtle manner, allow us to relate to the abysses and threats of the time. Following a loose chronology, the presentation retraces Wacker’s artistic development, while individual exhibition rooms are dedicated to central thematic emphases of his oeuvre.

• PRESS IMAGE LIST Rudolf Wacker (pdf, 536 kB)

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