Gottfried Salzmann is one of the most internationally renowned Austrian artists of his generation. Salzburg served as the starting point for his early career in the 1970s, which has earned him a worldwide reputation through more than 250 solo exhibitions and numerous book publications.
An art book, a Christmas wish made by the twelve-year-old Gottfried Salzmann, proved to be the initial impetus for his long career. As a youth, he visited the foremost museums in Europe, in order to learn tosee. During his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, close observation and perusal opened up an additional level of perception for him. Down to the present day, he has always found his motifs by roaming through town and country armed with his camera: how do places change based on the angle of incidence of the sunlight, the cycle of the seasons, or through mist and rain?
He finds the answers to these questions in the serial transposition of his photographs, mainly into watercolour technique. In addition, there is a rich oeuvre of charcoal drawings, printed graphics, paintings and photo overpaintings, which are remarkable for their powerfully expressive interplay of perspective, structure, contour and contrast.
The artist’s 80th birthday is the occasion for a retrospective exhibition covering the last five decades. Gottfried Salzmann’s long-standing association with the Salzburg Museum is evident in generous gifts of his works, some of which are on show here in the gallery that was named after him in 2006.
