Trauma Body

Hannes Schwarz's artistic work stands monolithically within the development of Austrian art after 1945. His view of humanity, shaped by the trauma of the Nazi regime and the war, must today be understood as part of the “postwar” discussion. In his paintings, human beings appear traumatized or deformed by the horrors they have experienced and torn apart by questions of self-worth. What might a new image of humanity look like? How can the “I” (Sartre) be reimagined in a time of grief and psychological turmoil? The discourse on the body in art after 1945 breaks with perverted notions of the ideal body—art as catharsis.

In this exhibition, the work of Hannes Schwarz is confronted with examples by Walter Pichler and Bruno Gironcoli. They, too, particularly in their early works, call the human body into question. Overlaps, differences, and additions in the respective works reinforce the existentialist perspective on the body as an indicator of trauma.