--- type: exposition title: Kurt Hüpfner language: en url: "https://www.belvedere.at/en/kurt-hupfner-0" --- # Kurt Hüpfner ## Out of the Unknown ![Mixed Media](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/header_cropped_1920x480_fp/public/jart-images/_468272269995.jpg.webp?itok=cl6cRnik) **Duration:** 18 November 2016 - 26 February 2017 **The 21er Haus honors the lifetime achievement of Austrian artist Kurt Hüpfner (born 1930 in Vienna) with his first solo exhibition at a museum. The exhibition presents a cross-section of key periods of the artist, who is still active to this day. The works shown include his graphic beginnings, his drawings, his distinctive assemblage works from the 1970s, as well as the small sculptures that characterize his work from the mid-1980s onward. Most of the works on display come from a generous donation to the Belvedere from a private collection.** Starting out as a commercial artist and caricaturist in the early 1960s, Kurt Hüpfner then developed a complex independent body of work. After an influential visit to the exhibition Pop etc. in 1964 at the former 20er Haus, his drawings, paintings, and assemblages featured pictorial themes formally oriented toward Pop Art, while his content dealt with politics, war, and literature. In the 1970s, Hüpfner developed a completely unique style: His small-format plaster and terracotta sculptures, often painted with oils, are intricate "magical creatures," each of which tells its own story. The interface between modern and contemporary art movements such as Surrealism, Dadaism, and Pop Art, as well as his own reflections on political crises, set the parameters in which Hüpfner’s art was able to evolve, but his artistic work remained largely unnoticed by the public. Now the 21er Haus presents his first museum exposition of works, introduced as a new discovery within the canon of Austrian art history. Curated by Harald Krejci. ### [Belvedere 21](https://www.belvedere.at/en/visit/belvedere-21) **Opening hours:** Tuesday to Sunday, 11 am - 6 pm; Late Night: Thursday, 11 am - 9 pm **Address:** Belvedere 21, 1030 Vienna ([Getting there]()) [Tickets](https://www.belvedere.at/en/tickets?location%5B0%5D=4) ## Impressions - ![Mixed Media — Kurt Hüpfner, The Hypertelist, 1966 — Donation from private collection, Photo: © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/jart-images/_468272269995_0.jpg.webp?itok=Jg89Ts1y) - ![Watercolour, chalk — Kurt Hüpfner, Black Mess, undated — Donation from private collection, Photo: © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/jart-images/_468272269996.jpg.webp?itok=V_EvvQ0M) - ![Wood, sheet metal, paper, acrylic paint — Kurt Hüpfner, Danae, 1968 — Donation from private collection, Photo: © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/jart-images/_468272269991.jpg.webp?itok=-q-D43RD) - ![Charcoal, coloured crayon, and shellac on paper — Kurt Hüpfner, Kreuzigung 2 (Bezug Kubakrise), 1962 — Donation from private collection, Photo: © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/jart-images/_468272269990.jpg.webp?itok=fghgSO2o) - ![Lime wood, oil paint — Kurt Hüpfner, Tod, 1990 — Donation from private collection, Photo: © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/jart-images/_468272269992.jpg.webp?itok=uh9UzUn9) - ![Plaster, oil paint — Kurt Hüpfner, Fortune Teller, 1994 — Donation from private collection, Photo: © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/jart-images/_468272269993.jpg.webp?itok=M7dLwOb2) - ![Kurt Hüpfner — Kurt Hüpfner, Dame mit schöner Frisur, 1963 — Private collection, Vienna, Photo: © Francisco Cyhlar / fotoFC.com](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/jart-images/_468272269994.jpg.webp?itok=se-2QO9W) - ![Kurt Hüpfner — Exhibition View Kurt Hüpfner - Out of the Unknown — Photo: © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/jart-images/_468272290319.jpg.webp?itok=306JUw8o) - ![Kurt Hüpfner — Exhibition View Kurt Hüpfner - Out of the Unknown — Photo: © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/jart-images/_468272290318.jpg.webp?itok=oOYQpQP4) - ![Kurt Hüpfner — Exhibition View Kurt Hüpfner - Out of the Unknown — Photo: © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/jart-images/_468272290320.jpg.webp?itok=z4MV972d) - ![Kurt Hüpfner — Exhibition View Kurt Hüpfner - Out of the Unknown — Photo: © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/jart-images/_468272290321.jpg.webp?itok=VA-GshEp) - ![Kurt Hüpfner — Atelier Kurt Hüpfner, 2016 — Photo: © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/jart-images/_468272284080.jpg.webp?itok=sFk7DOUJ)