Galerie Dantendorfer
ENDLICHER | HÜPFNER
Much more than that
14 March – 6 June 2024
Exhibition: Much more than that
Artists: ENDLICHER | HÜPFNER
Duration: 14 March – 6 June 2024
Language as both point of departure and working material — this is precisely where our exhibition of works by Michael Endlicher and Kurt Hüpfner begins. While Michael Endlicher has fully devoted himself to language, whether spoken in performance and video or fixed in images, writing was a daily companion for Kurt Hüpfner, though it entered his artworks only selectively. Two writing artists and critics encounter one another — questioning and provoking.
Michael Endlicher experiments with words and letters in his works. The exhibition presents pieces from three bodies of work: Kritikbilder (critique paintings), Dramenbleche (drama plates), and Buchstabenbilder (letter paintings). Endlicher questions how art is talked about — in his critique paintings he quotes art critics, theorists, and reflections on art. He removes statements from their original context, transfers them onto canvas, and turns words into images. The critically ironic undertone in the selection of quotations is almost impossible to miss, as these are invariably meaning-laden, nearly impenetrable formulations.
Underlying language is a system of vocabulary and grammar — similarly, a clear system governs Endlicher’s Dramenbleche. Each letter corresponds to a numerical value based on its position in the alphabet: A = 1, B = 2, C = 3 … Z = 26. Adding together the values of the individual letters in a word produces a specific number for that word. Each metal plate presents three words along with their resulting numerical value.
At the center of the exhibition is MUCH MORE THAN THAT — composed of 16 letter paintings. Each canvas displays a single letter, which can be recombined endlessly according to the principle of a typesetter’s case. It is a perhaps banal sentence, but one that can also be read as laden with meaning, drawing attention to the empty phrases that surround us.
Having grown up during the Second World War, Kurt Hüpfner was deeply shaped by wartime experiences and the reconstruction period that followed. Throughout his life he feared the next crisis, closely followed political developments, and repeatedly questioned the meaning of life. This skepticism is also reflected in the formulations found in his works — which, strictly speaking, make no sense at all and follow no conceptual system.
In this way, Hüpfner places himself within the tradition of the Dadaists of the early 20th century, whose ironic, anarchic anti-art manifested the absurdity of the First World War. Established notions of art were challenged, everyday objects were declared artworks, and meaninglessness, chance, improvisation, and provocation took center stage. The same can be said of Kurt Hüpfner: his works are not planned but arise intuitively; there are no material boundaries — he uses whatever is at hand — and the meaning behind the work often remains elusive to the viewer.
Text: Selin Stütz-Staudinger
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