For the 3rd blog on (almost) forgotten artists, here is a blog on Kurt Ryslavy. Born in Graz Austria, Ryslavy has made some great works, but realized that art could not support him financially by itself. So he had to rethink his installations and make a more practical and financially more sound approach to his art. He wanted to make a living from his art and combined this into importing Austrian wines and combining them with critical texts and making installations out of them in museums and galleries.
This resulted in some highly peculiar works of art, but as an importer of Austrian Wines in Belgium he now is financially independent and can make his art the way he likes. The MAK in Vienna devoted some years ago an exhibition to him.
In this project, selected objects from the MAK collection are to be arranged by Kurt Ryslavy. He will do so as collector, as a wine dealer and as an artist, thus giving rise to a complex sort of intentionality and, what’s more, making space for a wine bar which once served as an installation in an exhibition by Harald Szeemann. Since art itself has become nothing more than a market, it will also suffer the market’s fate. By exorcizing and/or banalizing mystifi cation, Ryslavy prevents the capitalist control of societal creativity—a control which purpose is, of course, to mystify. The value of Ryslavy’s art lies not in its aesthetic standards of quality, but rather in its complex refl ection on the division of labor, subjectivity and immaterial work. (Peter Weibel) It is conceivable that the artist, who refers to himself as a “Sunday painter,” will mount a performance with the participation of winemakers.
www.ftn-books.com has 2 titles on Ryslavy available.
