Gunter Damisch

Biography

Gunter Damisch was born in Steyr, Upper Austria, in 1958. From 1978 to 1985, he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under Max Melcher and Arnulf Rainer. Damisch is regarded as one of the chief Austrian representatives of the ’New Wild Ones’ (German: „Neue Wilde“), an art movement of the eighties, most notably manifested in painting. Its representatives propagated panel painting as a new old medium and highlighted its special qualities. Such paintings are characterized by colourful, sweeping strokes, which expose the genuine components of this art form. This is often achieved by sculpturally emphasizing the paint itself as a compositional medium through accentuated brush strokes. “Hacken im Eis” (“Hacking in the ice”), a 1980s exhibition at Vienna art museum “House 20” (presently “House 21”), was a landmark event for the movement and featured the works of Damisch, Herbert Brandl, Otto Zitko and Hubert Scheibl. The exhibition aroused great public interest, bringing the artists international recognition. Alongside his painting, Damisch has created a number of drawings and art prints, as well as some sculptural works. Since 1992, Damisch has been Professor for Graphics at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. His mostly large-format oil paintings are often marked by intense colourfulness, and feature a range of shapes reminiscent of the view through a microscope – a world full of small protean creatures. The artist died in 2016 in Vienna.