The present commemorative is the start of a new attractive series under the title “Photographic art in Austria”; over the course of the coming issue programme, a number of excellent examples of this interesting genre, but one hitherto hardly considered by philately, will be presented. The series begins with the artist Eva Schlegel, born on 8 March 1960 in Hall in Tyrol, whose works have often attracted considerable international attention.

From 1979 to 1985, Eva Schlegel pursued her studies at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, in the masterclass of Oswald Oberhuber, and from 1997 to 2006 she herself taught as university professor for art and photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. At present, following her own participation in 1985, she is engaged as Commissioner for the Austrian contribution to the 54th Venice Biennale, taking place from the beginning of June to the end of November 2011. In 1996, Eva Schlegel was awarded the Prize of the City of Vienna for Fine Arts.

The photographic artist lives in Vienna, and for many years has investigated the lack of focus of images as an experimental study of perception. In her exhibition catalogue, “Stills at the Back of the Brain”, the famous advertising and fashion photographer Hannes Schmid writes about Eva Schlegel’s work: “Using materials such as glass and mirrors in a programmatic relationship to space, she creates various installations and art in buildings – works that are to be seen as a permanent involvement with architectural and intangible space. Her text works on glass, blurred to the point of illegibility, are like research on the limits to the expression of language and communication. Like ghostly dream images, the photographically staged portrait series of women appear like a meditation on the question of the relationship between physical presence and absence.”

On the question of portraits of women: the motif of the new commemorative shows Eva Schlegel’s work “o.T. 014, 2003″, the original of which is 185 x 120 cm. It comes from a group of works on which the artist spent 10 years examining the typical images of women, with the focus of the information being shifted through the photographic reworking using the means of the lack of focus. Subjective elements such as emotional expression, features of the face and details of the clothing are reduced to the essential information, while pictorial elements and light situations are emphasised and reinforced by means of the same process.

Source: Austria Post

published September 21st, 2011