Rotwand :: Artists :: Klaus Lutz

Artists :: Klaus Lutz

Klaus Lutz

Klaus Lutz
Solo presentation at Artissima – Back to the Future, Turin, 2016
Installation view

EXHIBITIONS AT ROTWAND

In Transit, 2010
Klaus Lutz, 2013

Biography
Solo Show @ Haus Konstruktiv
Solo Show @ Rotwand
Solo Show @ The Kitchen, NY

Films in 16mm
Excerpt from Titan, 2008, 16mm film, 13½ min (18 ips), b/w

Excerpt from Vulcan, 2004, 16mm film, 24½ min (18 ips), color

Excerpt from Caveman Lecture, 2002, 16mm film, 12 min (18 ips), b/w

Excerpt from Meteor Lecture, 1998, 16mm film, 22½ min (18 ips), b/w

Excerpt from Between the Blocks, 1997, 16mm film, 11 min (24 ips), color

Excerpt from Acrobatics, 1996, 16mm film, 21½ min (18 ips), color

Born 1940 in St. Gallen/Switzerland
Died 2009 in New York City

The oeuvre of Swiss artist and filmmaker Klaus Lutz adds up to a densely interlaced universe all of its own. Based the premise that written language would soon be replaced by entirely visual communication, Lutz created an intricate sign system that he deployed across a whole range of media. Initially, his preferred media were small-format dry-point etchings and copperplate engravings of narrative image sequences, some of them based on the writings of Robert Walser, whose work was of crucial importance to Lutz. Later, Lutz turned to experimental filmmaking and film performances. By means of multiple exposures, various types of lenses, and self-constructed apparatuses, he created films that combined and over-layered animation, performance, drawings and scenes shot on the streets of New York, where he had been living since 1993. Lutz shot the films all by himself in his one-bedroom East Village apartment. Reminiscent of early silent movies by Georges Méliès or Charlie Chaplin, the films relate the adventures of one man, Lutz himself, in a quixotic universe between dream and reality, made up of signs, shapes, everyday objects, and footage of the outside world. Some of his films were incorporated in installations and performances.

Lutz was a classic artist's artist who had close band of ardent followers in Europe and the US, yet his unique works were never available to a broad audience. This summer Museum Haus Konstruktiv will present the first retrospective of Lutz' diverse oeuvre. A comprehensive catalogue will be published by Kehrer Verlag.

Text Martin Jaeggi