Spuren und Funde

January marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Reutlingen artist Winand Victor, who died in 2014. To mark this occasion, the Kunstmuseum Reutlingen is dedicating an exhibition to him. On display are works from the museum’s own collection as well as loans from private and public collections, including key works such as the silkscreen “den toten der gewalt” (1954), the paintings “Der arme Spielmann” (1958), “Zitzenstadt” (1959), “Genesis I” (1965), and Victor’s print portfolios of the 1960s and 1970s: Spuren und Funde (1967), Elf Städte (1972), O Firenze (1977). In his motifs, which often combine figuration and abstraction, Victor embarks on a search for the origins of earthly existence and in the process makes universally valid statements about the state of humanity. The exhibited artworks document the artist’s experimental use of a wide variety of techniques, as well as his intensive examination of the surface structure and materiality of the objects. At the same time, by juxtaposing these works with works from later creative phases, it becomes clear how the basic principles of form and content found by Victor at an early stage continue to have an effect and what key role printmaking plays in his artistic œuvre.