Heinz Frank
Die neue Menschlichkeit in der Bekleidung
2019
African wax print cotton, sewn by  the company Schnepf, 1070 Wien
variable dimensions
Open edition, with signed certificate of authenticity by Büro Heinz Frank

€ 900,– (incl. VAT)

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Heinz Frank (1939 – 2020) was within the Viennese art scene, the grand master of the play of language and forms through which he – in his perambulation through the locales of the city, and clad in his idiosyncratic, dandyesque attire – pitted a radical form of subjectivity against the conventions of the present day. Each of his exhibitions formed a stage for the performance of a drama that was usually enacted by paintings, sculptures, objects, items of furniture, masks, carpets, and rocks, as well as found objects. 

„Die neue Menschlichkeit in der  Bekleidung“ is a series of garments for which Heinz Frank combined African wax print fabrics with the form of workwear, like work coats and boiler suits. He found the fabrics in stores around his apartment and had them sewn according to his instructions by one of Vienna’s most traditional workwear manufacturers. He himself wore the coats as part of his art, as much as part of his life.

Heinz Frank studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and has been working as an artist since the 1960s. He had solo-exhibitions at Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (2019); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2019) and Bureau des Réalités, Brussels (2018). His works have been included in numerous group-exhibitions, most recently at mumok, Vienna (2022); MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna (2021); Riga Biennale, Riga (2020); Museum der Moderne, Salzburg (2019); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2019); Tanya Leighton, Berlin (2019) and Landesgalerie Linz (2018).
His works are part of several public collections, including mumok – museum of modern art Vienna; MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna; Rupertinum, Salzburg and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, among others.
The last sculpture that has been realised during Frank’s lifetime was part of the 2nd Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art, RIBOCA2, curated by Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel in 2020.