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Rudolf Polanszky

March 3–April 11, 2020
541 West 24th Street, New York

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Installation video

Installation view Artwork © Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Rob McKeever

Works Exhibited

Rudolf Polanszky, Reconstructions / Dark Mirrors, 2019 Mirrored foil, silicone, acrylic glass, resin, and acrylic on wood, in artist’s frame, 59 ⅝ × 69 inches (151.4 × 175.5 cm)© Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Jorit Aust

Rudolf Polanszky, Reconstructions / Dark Mirrors, 2019

Mirrored foil, silicone, acrylic glass, resin, and acrylic on wood, in artist’s frame, 59 ⅝ × 69 inches (151.4 × 175.5 cm)
© Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Jorit Aust

Rudolf Polanszky, Reconstructions / Translinear Floating Segments no. 2, 2018 Aluminum, silicone, pigment, acrylic glass, resin, polyurethane foam, cardboard, and acrylic on canvas, in artist’s frame, 79 ⅛ × 118 ¾ inches (201 × 301.4 cm)© Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Jorit Aust

Rudolf Polanszky, Reconstructions / Translinear Floating Segments no. 2, 2018

Aluminum, silicone, pigment, acrylic glass, resin, polyurethane foam, cardboard, and acrylic on canvas, in artist’s frame, 79 ⅛ × 118 ¾ inches (201 × 301.4 cm)
© Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Jorit Aust

Rudolf Polanszky, Reconstructions / Dark Mirrors, 2019 Mirrored foil, silicone, acrylic glass, resin, and acrylic on wood, in artist’s frame, 68 ⅝ × 83 ¼ inches (174.1 × 211.4 cm)© Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Jorit Aust

Rudolf Polanszky, Reconstructions / Dark Mirrors, 2019

Mirrored foil, silicone, acrylic glass, resin, and acrylic on wood, in artist’s frame, 68 ⅝ × 83 ¼ inches (174.1 × 211.4 cm)
© Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Jorit Aust

Rudolf Polanszky, Reconstructions / Complementary Pictures no. 2, 2019 Aluminum, silicone, pigment, acrylic glass, resin, polyurethane foam, feathers, and acrylic on canvas, in artist’s frame, 83 ⅛ × 79 ¾ inches (211 × 202.5 cm)© Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Jorit Aust

Rudolf Polanszky, Reconstructions / Complementary Pictures no. 2, 2019

Aluminum, silicone, pigment, acrylic glass, resin, polyurethane foam, feathers, and acrylic on canvas, in artist’s frame, 83 ⅛ × 79 ¾ inches (211 × 202.5 cm)
© Rudolf Polanszky. Photo: Jorit Aust

About

When we say that something makes sense—that is interesting. But I do not want to make sense, because this sense is a definition made by somebody else.
—Rudolf Polanszky

Gagosian is pleased to present paintings and sculptures by Rudolf Polanszky dating from 2014 to 2019. This exhibition inaugurates his representation by the gallery.

An important contributor to the artistic landscape of Vienna, Polanszky makes cerebral multidisciplinary works that embrace chance occurrence. His fundamentally improvisational practice marries conceptual philosophies with varied modes of production, resulting in compositions that oscillate between dual identities as concrete objects and symbols of subjective perception.

Growing up in the immediate wake of the Viennese Actionist movement of the 1960s, Polanszky began his practice making satirical films, paintings, and performance art pieces that mischievously countered the Actionists’ graphic focus on living bodies in their own notorious performance works. To create his Sprungfedernzeichnungen (Coil Spring Drawings, 1983–85), for example, he bounced around a paper-covered room atop a large metal spring, wielding an elongated paintbrush in each hand, leaving behind painted and graphic traces of his uncontrolled motions.

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News

Rudolf Polanszky (New York: Gagosian, 2020)

Online Reading

Rudolf Polanszky

Rudolf Polanszky is available for online reading from July 1 through July 30 as part of Artist Spotlight: Rudolf Polanszky. Published on the occasion of his first exhibition with Gagosian, the book highlights recent paintings and sculptures by the Viennese artist dating from 2014 to 2019. To make his richly textured assemblages, Polanszky uses salvaged industrial materials such as acrylic glass, aluminum, mirrored foil, silicone, and wire, recombining them into purely aesthetic forms divorced from their original contexts. An essay by Francesco Stocchi considers the artist’s work in relation to the concept of the void, while an illuminating conversation with the artist by Hans Ulrich Obrist offers an overview of Polanszky’s career.

Rudolf Polanszky (New York: Gagosian, 2020)

Photo: Xandra M. Linsin

Artist Spotlight

Rudolf Polanszky

July 1–7, 2020

An important contributor to the artistic landscape of Vienna, Rudolf Polanszky makes cerebral multidisciplinary works that embrace chance occurrence. His fundamentally improvisational practice marries conceptual philosophies with varied modes of production, resulting in compositions that oscillate between dual identities as concrete objects and symbols of subjective perception.

Photo: Xandra M. Linsin