Josef Pausch †1948-2010
The unknown Austrian photo genius and the mixed media artist. Recognized abroad, hardly known in Austria.
An Upper Austrian from Micheldorf, born 1948, died too early in 2010 in Linz. He lived in America and Mexico, among other places. His works hang in the Museo de Arte Moderne in Mexico City, in the Museum of Art in Santa Fe, in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, at the Metropolitan Museum in Tokyo.
He was assistant to John Coplan, the founder of the magazine "Artforum". He worked with Horst P. Horst, one of the most important fashion photographers of the 20th century, who was celebrated for his portraits for the fashion magazine Vogue. He worked with Robert Avedon, one of the first American photographic artists who did not photograph haute couture in the studio but staged it in everyday situations. His own talent and the inspiration of his great role models gave Pausch a magnificent eye, which always worked like a lens. He saw everyday life as a collection of pictures, collages, stagings. What might seem like mania, was a merging into art.
His work, however, was hardly noticed in this country. It was too extensive, too far-reaching, too untimely for that. The ingenious often has a hard time in the reception, because there is no language for something that points to the future. The eye of Pausch has looked through the camera into the future and in the 80s created photographic styles and worlds that are now slowly opening up to the spirit of the times. Now that other photographers have arrived where Pausch was thirty years ago, his work becomes accessible.
In the context of his first photographic solo exhibition in Salzburg in 1983, he was attested "optical intelligence", his photographs "show landscape and architectural components to the same extent, and beyond that also a clear affinity to art forms of the avant-garde such as Land-, Concept- and Minimal Art. It is a quiet poetry of the objective that we encounter here. He has not only taken photographs. He was an excellent graphic artist, draughtsman, painter and reductionist. "Pausch's pronounced preference for details and the things on the edge, for the inconspicuous and silence promoted the selection process, as Peter Baum noted. Pausch himself called it "the interest in seemingly unimportant things and the elevation of the banal to the rank of pictures worthy of exhibition".
For in the final analysis he thematized "the obvious, namely that which surrounds me daily,
he said, "I prefer the trivial. This allows me to show a quality that is usually overlooked".
VITA
1948 born in Micheldorf / Austria and died 2010 in Linz / Austria
Education:
University for Art and Design Linz, Austria
Art Institut of Chicago, USA
Colleg of Graphic Arts & Photography, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA
Visual Study Workshop, Natan Lyons, Rochester, USA
MOMA, N.Y., Museumworkshop, John Szarkovsky, Curator of the Department Photography
State University of New Mexico, Photography, Baumont Newhall
Studyships:
1979 Studyship of the State Departement Austria
1979 Studyship for Art (Minestry for Science and Art), Austria
1978 Collaborator with Forum Metal, Linz, Austria
1980 Collaborator with John Coplan (Photographer and founder of „ARTFORUM), USA
1980 Artdirector at VOGUE Inc., N.Y., USA
1981 Assistent with Horst P. Horst, and Richard Avedon N.Y., USA
1982-1985 Artdirector at Condé Nast - VOGUE, USA
Collaborator with Heinz Henisch, State College, PA., USA
Collaborator at the Museum of Moderne Art with Fernando Gamboa, Mexico City
Curator and co-founder of the Departement Photography at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA, N.Y., USA)
Teaching:
1980 Vistingteacher at „Friends of Photography, Carmel Californien“,Ansel Adams Foundation, USA
1989-1992 Visiting Professor at State University of N.Y., (Parson) USA
1990-2006 Visiting Professor at Architect Assaciation London, GB
1992-2010 Teacher at University for Art and Design Linz, Austria
Education
Solo
1977 Galerie Maerz, Linz, Austria
1978 Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France
1980 Robert Miller, New York, USA
1980 Länderbank (Stiftung Photographie), Austria
1982 Steirischer Herbst, Graz, Austria
1982 Fotohof, Salzburg, Austria
1998 Shu´s Hall, Aomori, Japan
1999 AA, London, GB
2000 CIPRA, Unité d´habiltation Le Corbuisier, Brie-en-foret, France
2001 Austrian Culture Institut, Tokyo, Japan
2002 Amtshaus, Weibern, Austria
2003 Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum, Japan
2008 Landesgalerie Linz, Oberösterreichischen Landesmuseum, Austria
2018/19 ARTFOR Gallery, Linz, Austria
2018/19 Leica Galerie Salzburg, Schloss Arnberg,Austria
2019 Kühberger & Haas, Steyr, Austria
2020/21 ARTFOR Gallery, Linz, Austria
2023 Gallery-Ordination Dr. Anderle, Linz, Austria
2023 ARTFOR Gallery, Linz, Austria
Group
1999 O.K. Linz, „Auswahl“, Austria
1999 Galerie Maerz, Überzeugendes Signal, Linz, Austria
1999 Act 99 - Art Communication Tour 99, Wels-Linz-Steyr, Austria
1999 Manege, Moscow, Russia
2000 Aus dem Umfeld. Zeichnungen + Stadtwerkstatt 1979 - 1999, Stadtwerkstatt Linz, Austria
2002 Galerie Maerz, Künstlervereinigung MAERZ, Josef Pausch. Photographie, Linz, Austria
2002 Kunstuniversität Linz, Tendenzen der Oberösterreichischen Zeichnung, Austria
2004 Edition Achicard 02, Architektur Zentrum Wien, Austria
2005 OÖ Landesmuseum, „Entwickelt“, Sammlung Walter, Austria
2006 Rupertinum, Salzburg, Österreichische Fotosammlung, Austria
2013 Zyklus Free, Fotoserie, AFO Architekturforum OÖ. Künstlervereinigung MAERZ, Linz, Austria
2013 Is It Really You, Kunstsammlung des Landes Oberösterreich, Austria
2017 Sammeln Kunst-Schaffende Kunst, Vereinigung Kunstschaffender Oberösterreichs - bvoö, Austria
2017 Aspekte: FARBE!, dieKUNSTSAMMLUNG OÖ, Österreich
2019 ARTFOR Gallery Linz, Austria
2020 ARTFOR Gallery Linz, Austria
2021 LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz, REAL WILD CHILD, Österreich
2022/23 ARTFOR Gallery Linz, Austria
Works in public and privat Collections
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France
Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico
Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Länderbank / Bank Austria - Photostiftung, Vienna, Austria
Rupertinum, Salzburg, Austria
Landesmuseum OÖ, Linz, Austria
Neue Galerie Linz, Austria
Fotohof, Salzburg, Austria
Metropolitan Museum Tokyo, Japan
Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Austria
Francisco Carolinum Linz, Austria
ARTFOR Gallery Linz, Austria
