Heinz Gappmayr

Beginning in the late fifties, Heinz Gappmayr (1925–2010) developed an artistic concept that elevated language itself to become an art object. In more than five thousands works on paper, photographs, works in public space, and publications, Gappmayr liberated language from its function as a reference to external reality and concentrated instead on its concrete reality and materiality. The artist participated in a lively exchange with the contemporary art scene and was an important source of inspiration for museums, galleries, academies, and science.   At the heart of the volume is the essay “Aporetic Zones” on the relation of writing, numbers, and images to language: author Michael Rottmann, ideally equipped to do so as an art historian and mathematician, compiles a differentiated portrait of this extraordinary artist.