The Austrian artist Christa Hauer (1925-2013) would have turned 100 this year. The Lower Austria State Gallery is dedicating a large exhibition to its wide-ranging cultural and sociopolitical commitment. With the gallery in the Greece in Vienna, Hauer founded an important center for current art in 1960. From 1971 she moved her cultural activities to the Lengenfeld Castle near Krems, which developed into a cultural meeting point within a very short time. Christa Hauer transferred a large part of her art collection to the Lower Austria State Collections, which, through further purchases, extend them to a total stock of around 1,600 works from the family-owned Hauer-Fruhmann.
„Christa Hauer was always on the pulse of time. In the Lower Austria State Gallery, we appreciate your merits as a gallery owner and activist from the very beginning
“, Emphasized Gerda RidlerArtistic director of the Lower Austria State Gallery.
„With works from Christa Hauer’s estate as well as archives, photos and television entries, the exhibition draws a living picture of her diverse work as a gallery owner and activist. The show illuminates the outstanding meaning of Hauer’s gallery in the Greece for the art scene of the 1960s
“, so Alexandra SchantlHead of Collection “Art after 1960” of the Lower Austria State Collections and the curator of the exhibition.
Gallery in the Greece: A place for avant -garde
After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts, Christa Hauer spent the 1950s mainly in the United States in order to develop artistically there. She returned to Vienna full of drive and opened a gallery with her husband, the painter Johann Fruhmann in 1960. Her father Leopold Hauer provided the young couple the empty rooms above the Greece in the first district of Vienna. Hauer’s grandfather Franz Hauer was once the owner of the historic Greechenbeisl inn, who collected and promoted artists such as Albin Egger-Lienz, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka at the turn of the century.
Christa Hauer developed the gallery in addition to the two already established galleries Würthle and next St. Stephan quickly into a central forum for contemporary art, which was characterized by great openness in the eleven years of its existence. In addition to well-known Austrian names such as Christian Ludwig Attersee, Martha Jungwirth, Franz Ringel or Karl Prantl, many of whom had their first public appearance there, the gallery showed numerous exhibitions of artists: Inside from Germany, England, Italy, ex-Yugoslavia, Hungary and India and Japan.
Lengenfeld Castle: A cultural hotspot
After the gallery was closed in the Greece, Hauer shifted her work on the Lengenfeld Castle near Krems from 1971. This developed into a cultural meeting point within a very short time. Exhibitions, performances as well as music and literature evenings attracted audiences from near and far. Here was celebrated just as extensively as discussed on current sociopolitical issues. In addition, the castle was also the center for innovative townscape care, environmental protection and citizen participation. Hauer’s initiatives in Lengenfeld contributed significantly to the cultural departure in Lower Austria.
Co -founder of the intact
From the 1970s, Hauer was involved in the feminist art scene and was active in numerous committees. Among other things, she was a founding member and first chairman of the international campaign community of visual artists (intact). Members of the group were, among other things, Renate Bertlmann, Ingrid Opitz or Linda Christanell. Their commitment to the visibility and appreciation of artists was visionary and of great importance.
Christa Hauer. ARTIST. Gallery owner. Activist
12.04.2025 – 01.03.2026
www.kunstmeile.at/hauer
Opening: Sat 12.04.2025, 11 a.m.
Landesgalerie Lower Austria, Museumsplatz 1, 3500 Krems on the Danube
Art, coffee & kipferl
Artist Margot Pilz in conversation with curator Alexandra Schantl
Sun 04.05.2025, 10.30 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Press area: www.kunstmeile.at/de/presse/landesgalerie
Press photos: https://celum.noeku.at/pinaccess/showpin.do?pinCode=ChristaHauer
Photos for the opening (Online on April 12th, 2025 from 3 p.m.):
https://www.apa-fotoservice.at/galerie/39065
Press contact:
Elisabeth Zettl
+43 664 604 99 178
elisabeth.zettl@kunstmeile.at