Landesgalerie Niederösterreich provides an insight into the artist’s life’s work, which combines fine art and literature
Krems (OTS) – The artist Frank Lechner is the 2023 Lower Austrian award winner in the visual arts category. She is one of the important representatives in the field of textile art.
Gerda Ridlerartistic director of the Landesgalerie Niederösterreich, is pleased to be able to show Franka Lechner as the 2023 award winner:
“The presentation of the Lower Austrian award winners is an integral part of the annual exhibition program. I am particularly pleased to honor Franka Lechner, the third prize winner with a personal award after Isolde Maria Joham and Thomas Reinhold. Franka Lechner has always upheld the tradition of weaving art against the spirit of the times.”
Hubert Nitschcurator of the exhibition, emphasizes the profound content in Lechner’s work:
“Franka Lechner’s diverse oeuvre ranges from tapestry to painting to poetry. The artist’s view of the world is reflected in the works. In it she processes mythological, spiritual, socially critical, political and personal themes as well as observations on nature.”
TAPESTRY AND PAINTING
In her artistic beginnings, Lechner concentrated on painting and collages on paper and experimented with textile materials. In the 1970s, tapestries made on the high loom came to the fore. For Lechner, weaving is a “metaphor for life”. Her tapestries are color compositions with finely nuanced transitions, which she previously established in pencil and colored pencil sketches. She dyes the wool herself. This creates tapestries that are carried by an energy of color tones and are full of poetry and a contemplative feel.
Lechner’s paintings are multi-layered messages on paper. They form an interplay of painterly, scriptural and graphic elements and are created parallel to her tapestries.
Her works are represented in many museum and private collections as well as in public spaces. The artist created tapestries for the parish church in Bad Schallerbach, for the funeral hall in Schwanenstadt and for the General Hospital in Vienna.
LYRICS
From 1982 onwards, Franka Lechner also devoted herself to poetry. The artistic intrinsic value of the different genres is important to her, but the series of works nevertheless stimulate each other. “Woven poems and poetic webs” were created over decades. In 1989, Lechner was honored with the Lower Austria State Recognition Prize for Literature.
The exhibition brings together works from five decades and provides insight into Franka Lechner’s diverse life’s work. On display are 18 tapestries, 12 miniature tapestries, 24 graphics and a design drawing of a tapestry as well as a selection of her poems. A thread of content is stretched across the Danube by the Landesgalerie Niederösterreich. At the same time, the tapestry “Meditation” from 1992 by Franka Lechner will be shown in the crypt of the Benedictine monastery in Göttweig.
FRANKA LECHNER
AWARD WINNER 2023
02.12.2023–14.04.2024
www.lgnoe.at/lechner
Opening: Fri December 1st, 2023, 6:00 p.m
Landesgalerie Niederösterreich, Museumsplatz 1, 3500 Krems an der Donau
Registration under: kunstmeile.at/anmeldung
Mmusic performance with HK Gruber
As part of the opening on December 1st, 2023, chansonnier HK Gruber and pianist Robert Lehrbaumer will perform songs by Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler. admission free
Photos for the opening (online am 02.12.2022): https://www.apa-fotoservice.at/galerie/34850
Questions & Contact:
State Gallery of Lower Austria
Elisabeth Zettl
+43 664 60499 178
elisabeth.zettl@kunstmeile.at