Austrian Cultural Forum
28 Rutland Gate ~ Knightsbridge ~ London SW7 1PQ
10–14 September 2012
Christoph Schmidberger
In 2011, during the Frieze Art Fair, English Garden Lounging presented a selection of paintings by Christoph Schmidberger in a bedroom in Claridge’s Hotel on the final day of the Fair. This new exhibition will bring together a much greater body of the artist’s paintings and drawings, presented in the splendour of the Salon and Gallery of this Grade II listed five-storey building, with its stunning Portland Stone staircase, Austrian oak parquet flooring, swan-necked handrails and interiors that celebrate the qualities of Austrian designers and manufacturers including Zumtobel, Bene and Wiesner Hager.
Christoph Schmidberger’s naturalistic, figurative paintings dispense a certain sensuality coupled with a deliberate detachment. Taking portraits of friends and acquaintances as his material, he documents a poetic world of nature and architecture, of private interiors and sunlit gardens.
His works have been shown internationally at galleries and museums including the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art in California, the Landesmuseum Joanneum (Joanneum National Museum) in Graz, Austria, and Royal Academy, London. His work features in collections including Saatchi Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Los Angeles, County Museum of Art, Joslyn Museum of Art, and Österreichische Galerie Belvedere.
English Garden Lounging music soundscapes, films and private events were hosted daily throughout the exhibition.
The Exhibition was organised with the kind assistance of Union Gallery and the Austrian Cultural Forum London.