(Re) discovering Greta Schödl (AT/IT)
Discovering the 96-year old Greta Schödl was my absolute highlight of this year’s Vienna Contemporary. As I caught a glimpse of her solo booth on my way out, I knew I had to turn back. Browsing through her work, I sensed a quiet, steady voice, yet with a timeless, mystical presence was in the midst.
Schödl’s work has generally been contextualized in the genre of Poesia Visiva, an experimental art movement in the 1960s and 70s in Italy and Belgium, where artists transformed words into images, blending literary and visual experimentation with a political undertone.
However, her art practice does go beyond what the movement encapsulates. For over 6 decades, she has forged her very own, distinct signature by melting language with materials and her inner-being, carried out through rhythm, repetition and an unceasing discipline, resulting in a multi-layered transformation of all agents involved.
Abstract from Untitled, 1980s. Leaf, graphite, black ink, gold leaf, rice paper on ancient book page. 16 x 20 cm
Skin Flap, 1999. Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas
Abstract from Animali Fantastici. 1970
Untitled, 1970-80s. Paper pulp, gauze, acrylic paint, gold leaf
LANGUAGE vs. MATERIALS
Words and materials are the key elements in Schödl’s practice, yet there seems to be an attempt to give new interpretation (and life) to both elements, as both are being interwoven into each other’s existence and are re-molded in the process.
Her handwriting in German or Italian is carefully inscribed repetitively onto the surfaces of the chosen materials, to the point that the text gradually dissolved into patterns. The words still exist, albeit semantics do not.
Untitled, 2024, Black ink and gold leaf on marble. Image Courtesy: Richard Saltoun
Schödl works with a diverse range of materials, from everyday seemingly random objects like kitchen towel, maps to antique papers and precious carrara marble. Each of these different materials pose new challenges to the artistic process, yet it also reflects her implicit ambition to show how both words and materials can “work” with each other, and as a result, be transformed.
Untitled, 2024. Black ink and gold leaf on Carrara marble.
Container of Words, 2023. Ink and gold leaf on iron and cotton ribbon
Untitled, ca. 1970. Ink and gold leaf on ancient paper map
Cloth, 2023. EB monogram in red, ink and gold leaf on hemp cloth
REPETITION vs. RHYTHM
Looking closer, her work has a clear and measured rhythm, whether it is the calligraphy which is repeated incessantly, or the punctuated gold leaf dots that forms a vertical rhythm on the horizontal flow of a meditative text. This flow of rhythm seems to be a non-negotiable for her.
"Asemic Gold” is a case in point - each gold leaf was being repetitiveness placed on canvas, there seems to be an attempt to create uniformity, yet, each line landed differently on the canvas, just as how intention and chance collide in real life.
Asemic Gold, 2020. Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas. 160 x 59.5 cm. Photo by Hilary Tsui
Schödl’s work has a highly meditative and transcendental quality. Behind the interplay between word and image, the mundane and the sacred, meaning and materials, it is an artist who is truly disciplined in adhering to her own signature, while exploring its possibilities.
All in all, her practice - unlike what the Poesia Visiva movement mainly focused on - tends to be universal than political, explorative than critical, with her inner-being deeply carved into each of her work. (reviewed by Hilary Tsui)
Untitled, 1990s. Gold leaf on hemp canvas mounted with an antique paper book page, dried petals and leaves, rice paper, ink, and gold leaf. Image Courtesy: Richard Saltoun.
About the Artist
Greta was born in 1929 in Austria, studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna before relocating to Bologna in 1959. After a pause for family life, she resumed work in the mid‐1960s, and developed her own voice within the Poesia Visiva movement.
Some of the major exhibitions she participated include: Venice Biennale (1978 & 2024); São Paulo Bienal (1981); solo retrospectives such as 70 Years of Work (Rome, Richard Saltoun, 2024–5), Street Poetry (Vienna, 2025) and Warps of Light (Athens, 2024). Her works are held in major collections including in Rome, Washington D.C., and the Sackner Archive among others.
Image Courtesy, except otherwise specified: Richard Saltoun Gallery
