historical ubuweb

Heinz Gappmayr, Austria | b. 1925 Untitled 1 (no date) Untitled 2 (no date) Untitled 3 (no date) Untitled 4 (no date) Heinz Gappmayr is among the artist-theoreticians whose texts and artworks have been focusing since the 1960s on the connections between the visual and linguistic production of meaning. His works aim to place words, concepts, and phrases on paper, canvases, and walls in such a way that their meaning also finds expression in their compositional arrangementÑto make language visibly do what it means. But as there are always several possible ways of linking linguistic form and linguistic meaning, any belief in a single, immutable visual identity of language finally proves illusionary. In Gappmayr's work, above all terms of being, of becoming, and of passing away are "portrayed" in dynamic sequences of letters and words. Words signifying place are visualized by corresponding positioning within the pictorial field; geometrical forms and colors are represented by tautological or contradictory linguistic and symbolic equivalents. RELATED RESOURCES: "Concrete Poetry: A World View : Austria" in UbuWeb Papers