László F. Földényi From «Spiritual spaces. The painting of Hanns Kunitzberger» «... Hanns Kunitzberger’s paintings evoke a feeling of solemnity in the observer. At his exhibition in the Künstlerhaus in Vienna I was able to see and hear for myself how visitors immediately lowered their voices as they entered – as if they had stepped into a church, even though there is nothing religious in Kunitzberger’s paintings, or indeed any references to the church or to particular confessions. I would even venture to say that his pictures – with the exception of one or two weak symbolic allusions – do not refer to anything, and if they do, then exclusively to themselves. (...) The reverence emanating from Kunitzberger’s pictures is not an object or a motif but something that precedes them. Where is it to be found? Somewhere between the picture and its observer, in the force field that connects the picture with the observer in front of it and wraps both of them in a kind of shroud. Hanns Kunitzberger’s exhibition gives the observer the strange experience of being a «continuation» of the picture, as if he is an organic part or living complement to it. While he is observing the picture, the picture is also observing him. This in my eyes is the characteristic feature of Hanns Kunitzberger’s painting. It creates an unprecedentedly close symbiosis between the observer and the painting, which in turn is closely connected to another form of symbiosis: the symbiosis between image and ritual, the creation of which is one of the fundamental endeavours behind Kunitzberger’s painting. The solemnity and reverence are nurtured by this double symbiosis. Although his pictures are without a doubt paintings or works of art, Kunitzberger nevertheless succeeds in making them appear in the eyes of the observer to be something other than art. In this way he not only evokes reverence but also draws attention to the limits and conditions of art. He also steers our way of seeing in new directions. The great lesson to be learnt from his exhibitions is that he makes the observer see and observe not an object but the act of seeing itself. This was not only one of the main aims of painting but also of mysticism. Mystical painting is how I would describe Kunitzberger’s work if I didn’t fear limiting it in this way. Kunitzberger is not a philosopher of perception, of course, nor a mystic, but a thoroughbred artist. As such he directs interest to the basic principles of painting itself and his paintings are not an impression of something in the objective world but of imagery itself. ...» László F. Földényi, Essayist und Literary Historian, 2007. From the volume «Hanns Kunitzberger. Die Orte der Bilder. Painting.»

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