Conceptual Art in Austria
Robert Fleck 

The history of Conceptual Art began in the United States in 1955and marked an enormous evolution of what art can be and how it works. Its representatives emphasized the immaterial qualities as well as the idea behind art, thus presenting the market and museums with new challenges. Art was no longer understood primarily as an object and a commodity. A major challenge was therefore also the marketing and communication of conceptual art, a task that initially only a few representatives of the art system in Europe took on. 

Of great importance in this context is the (present-day) Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder in Vienna, which was an early advocate of conceptual approaches. Founded by Monsignor Otto Mauer in the 1950s and later continued by Oswald Oberhuber and Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, the gallery advanced to become an important place of interdisciplinary discourse. Today, the HALLE FÜR KUNST hosts art historian and curator Robert Fleck. Fleck will provide exciting insights into the developments of conceptual art in Austria and will also talk about the significance of the gallery.