Klaus Mosettig Austria, b. 1975

Drawing, in various manifestations, has always been of outstanding importance in Mosettig's art. Since the exhibition Pradolux 2009 at the Vienna Secession, it has been at the centre of his work and of public perception. The sign of Mosettig's drawing practice becomes a procedure that he applies indiscriminately to various kinds of originals and that has two constants: a slide projection, which is the actual motif of the drawing, and the systematic transfer of the light image with pencil hatchings into grey values. The artist regularly works in series and often also resorts to artistic means such as repetition or mirroring.
The chosen models cover a wide field and range from prominent works of art (by Jackson Pollock, Josef Albers, Käthe Kollwitz and others) to deposits of dust and dirt (Projector Portraits, 2008/09), from doodle drawings of his own daughter (Informel, 2014-2017) to photos of the lunar surface (Apollo 11, 2008/09) and a tabletop in Greece on which fingerprints of refugees were taken (Handwriting, 2017/18). Factually diverse and emotionally different, all these finds become visual facts on an equal footing, the material for Mosettig's contemplative-manual translation work. For all the consistency in the approach, different horizons and reflections on medium and material, painting and drawing, invention and appropriation, uniqueness and repetition, image and reality, moment and duration, proximity and distance open up depending on the series of works.

Rolf Wienkötter, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna