The Viennese School of Phantastic Realism and the Surrealism
Franz Smola
Podcast
The Viennese School of Phantastic Realism and the Surrealism
Franz Smola
As a proven specialist, Franz Smola gives interesting insights into the artistic work of the Fantastic Realists in a lecture and also talks about their relations to Surrealism. Both seem to show a certain tendency towards the phantasmagorical and to tie deeper psychographics back to the surface of their landscape scenes and figures. Smola opens historical retrospectives into authoritative exhibitions of the Fantastic Realists, shedding light on the group’s emergence, aspirations, and highlights. He draws parallels to exciting international figures such as Wolfgang Paalen, Edgar Jené, and Salvador Dali, as well as to Magical Realism, which was active at the same time, especially in Prague. In view of the recurring actuality of surrealism – not least due to the 59th Venice Biennale (2022) – it is worthwhile to once again examine the phenomenon of Fantastic Realism more closely precisely with regard to its surrealist connections.
Artists
Participating artists
Dr. Franz Smola
has been curator of late 19th and early 20th century art at the Belvedere in Vienna since 2017. From 2009 to 2017, he worked as collection curator at the Leopold Museum, Vienna. From 2013 to 2015, he also was as interim museological director there. As curator and co-curator, Smola regularly conceives exhibitions with a thematic focus on international classical modernism, such as Alberto Giacometti. Pionier der Moderne (Leopold Museum, Vienna 2014/15) or Wolfgang Paalen. Der österreichische Surrealist in Paris und Mexiko (Belvedere, Vienna 2019/20), as well as focusing on Vienna around 1900. Smola was the main curator, along with Wolfgang Boeckl, of the major retrospective of the Fantastic Realists, which took place at the Belvedere in Vienna in 2008. Most recently, Smola developed the show Klimt. La Secessione e l’Italia, Museo di Roma (Rome 2021/22). Smola is (co-)editor and author of numerous publications and monographs, including various contributions on Surrealism and the Fantastic Realists, among others Arik Brauer – Gesamt.Kunst.Werk (2014) and Phantastischer Realismus (2008).
More contributions
Michael Krebber in conversation with Sandro Droschl
Video
As part of the exhibition A.rtificial I.ntrospection O., Michael Krebber speaks with Sandro Droschl about his artistic practice and his engagement with the writings and conceptual models of Oswald Wiener.
Michael Krebber in conversation with Sandro Droschl A.rtificial I.ntrospection O.
Exhibition Tour
Slide show
The exhibition A.rtificial I.ntrospection O. (A.I.O.) explores questions of thought, perception, and subjectivity at the intersection of introspection, cybernetics, and artificial intelligence. Its point of departure is the work of the Austrian writer, cognitive psychologist, and cybernetician Oswald Wiener (1935 – 2021), whose genuine thinking since the 1950s critically navigated between these fields while systematically resisting institutional appropriation.
Slide Show A.rtificial I.ntrospection O. Dr. Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer
Susanne Wenger’s painting between Africa and Europe
Video
In her lecture, art historian and curator Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer examines Susanne Wenger’s work as a transcultural Gesamtkunstwerk that bridges European modernism and Yorùbá ritual practice, creating a new sacred aesthetic that merges art, ritual, and cultural boundaries.
Brigitte Borchardt Kathy Rae Huffman
FROM CYBERFEMINISM
UNTIL NOW
Video
Kathy Rae Huffman’s lecture traces the evolution of cyberfeminism since the 1990s: it connected women in the digital sphere, challenged existing power structures, and presented examples — from VNS Matrix to contemporary digital activism — that highlight critiques of platform corporations, AI cultures, and global inequalities.
Kathy Rae Huffman Xol Meissner
Concert
Video
New York-based artist Xol Meissner — the alter ego of composer Mauro Hertig — has transformed the HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark into a hypnotic soundscape of extraordinary intensity with his haunting music, which oscillates between contemporary classical and avant-garde rock.
Xol Meissner Karin M. Schmidlechner
Styrian women during and after National Socialism
Video
In her research and in the volume Aus dem Blickfeld (Out of Sight), co-edited with Heimo Halbrainer, Karin Maria Schmidlechner demonstrates that the lived realities of Styrian women during the Nazi era and the postwar period were diverse and ambivalent. Hence, she broadens the scholarly discourse on their daily lives while simultaneously deconstructing common narratives such as that of the conformist woman or the so-called “rubble woman.”
Karin M. Schmidlechner Eva Ursprung
The Art of Surfacing
Slide show
With the exhibition The Art of Surfacing, HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark presents the multifaceted work of Austrian artist, musician, and curator Eva Ursprung, who was awarded the Honorary Prize of the Province of Styria in 2024. Her cross-media, feminist, and socially critical approaches revolve around the element of water as a metaphor for change and political and ecological processes.
Slide show Eva Ursprung Susanne Wenger
Àdùnní Olórìṣà
Slide show
Susanne Wenger gilt als eine zentrale Künstlerin Österreichs nach 1945 und als frühe Wegbereiterin des Surrealismus. Ihr Œuvre, das Skulpturen, Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Drucke und Batiken umfasst, überschreitet ästhetische Kategorien und verbindet Kunst, Spiritualität und Mythos.
Slide Show Susanne Wenger