Walter Obholzer :
Hospital Eggenburg

One thing that Walter Obholzer demands of painting is that it be left a system of thinking or level of reflection and thus be essentially self-referential. He avoids spectacularism and limits himself to a few ornamental motifs. One series – "Vertical Panoramas" – consists of vertical small paintings framed with a plaster molding. Another one, to which also the piece in Eggenburg belongs, was grouped around the large spatial installation made for a show at the Salzburger Kunstverein. Here the wall is the direct surface of the painting and a similar circular ornamentation is used. On the painting referred to as "gefüllt 1994" (filled 1994) the artist commented as follows at the time: "'Filled' implies that circles divided according to color are thrown into a hollow body. This notion of the picture requires an activity, but then the picture moves into a 'ceremonially arrange’ contect. What happens in the process has to do with the artist's task of filling the empty surface of the painting." (Walter Obholzer, in an interview with Silvia Eiblmayr).
In Eggenburg the artist used four rows of circular ornaments in beige frames for the wall sections facing the window front. These ornaments were filled with red or blue in a certain rhythm. Endorsing a conceptual position (and taking into account the given setting) he tries to dissolve the painting: "…one tries to take shelter in a detail so as to still find the image…" (Walter Obholzer, in an interview with Silvia Eiblmayr).
(Susanne Neuburger)