Gefahr

Austrian artist Feri Zotter is closely linked to the Eastern Austrian State Burgenland, and most notably known for his dedication to its cultural policy. Zotter was chairman of the artists’ group Burgenland, first executive director of the State Gallery Eisenstadt, and, together with the mumok’s director-to-be, Alfred Schmeller, initiated the Artists’ Village in Neumarkt an der Raab, a project that has been providing ateliers and living spaces to various Austrian artists. Many a guest has been staying at the Artists’ Village, among them artist and architect Walter Pichler, painter Martha Jungwirth, and author Peter Handke, who, during his stay at the Village, conceived his famous novel “The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick”. Feri Zotter worked as an artist, too. After having graduated from multiple courses of studies at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, he painted in watercolours and oil, and experimented with drawing and Gobelin tapestry weaving. He absorbed different influences and stimuli into his work, without ever developing a recognizable style. The painting “Gefahr” (Danger) achieved in 1973, combines elements of Outsider Art, of folkloristic masking traditions, and of naive child-like painting. Zotter is primarily known on a local level for his dedication to cultural policy; his artworks are virtually unknown outside his native Burgenland. The fact that the mumok collection still includes three of Zotter’s works – two paintings and one gobelin – may be owed to his friend, director Alfred Schmeller’s attachment to Zotter.