Norbert Trummer

Untitled (1985)

Photo: N. Lackner / UMJ, ©️ Bildrecht, Vienna 2024

←

→

A very early painting by Norbert Trummer (born 1962, Leibnitz, Austria, lives in Vienna), then a student of Arnulf Rainer (born 1929), remains an eccentric exception in his work. Rebelling against the spiritual authority and stylistic routine of abstract painting, Trummer indulged in fantasies about fairy-tale pirates, paradise islands, and their alluring wild inhabitants. These fantasies are not without (conscious or unconscious) references to the art historical canon, as if any real artist should have a bit of Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) in him. Gauguin’s Tahitian women—who, unlike Trummer’s, are real, vulnerable, and often abused—haunt this seemingly unproblematic and light picture by a young artist of the 1980s, when European culture was still largely oblivious to the dark implications of its colonial past.

Oil on canvas, 75 × 65 cm

Neue Galerie Graz / Universalmuseum Joanneum

On our website we use cookies and related technologies to provide you with the best possible user experience.

Cookies that are technically necessary are essential for the operation or visit of our website. We set these cookies without the consent of the user in accordance with Section 165 (3) of the Austrian Telecommunications Act (TKG) 2021. Technically necessary cookies cannot be disabled. The following cookies are set:

session: Saves the visitor's session and is used, for example, to store the shopping cart in the store (storage period: until the browser is closed)
browserupdateorg: Prevents the repeated display of the outdated browser message if you are using an outdated browser (storage time: a few days)
__stripe_*: As soon as you add store items to the shopping cart, these cookies save, among other things, the status of your payment process (storage period: up to one year).

By clicking “Accept all cookies (incl. US providers)”, you agree to the use of all cookies from the third-party provider Vimeo. This makes it possible to play videos from the Vimeo video platform on our website without having to leave our website. In doing so, your personal data will be transmitted to Vimeo. This provider is based in the USA. Vimeo's embeddable video player uses first-party cookies that Vimeo deems necessary for the user experience. Vimeo uses third-party analytics and advertising cookies. Vimeo does not provide a list of cookies set by the embeddable player.

Risk notice: The European Court of Justice has ruled that the level of data protection in the USA is not adequate. In particular, there is a risk that U.S. authorities have access to your personal data for monitoring and surveillance purposes, among other things, and that no effective legal protection is available against this.

You can change the settings you have selected at any time and revoke your consent, apart from technically necessary cookies. We will store your declaration of consent, if any, as long as it is necessary to prove in any court or administrative (criminal) proceedings that the data processing was carried out lawfully or that the requirements of the relevant national and European legal provisions (GDPR, DSG, TKG 2021, etc.) are complied with.