Lois Weinberger

Born in Stams, Tyrol, in 1947 and died in Vienna in 2020, Lois Weinberger was an Austrian artist whose practice took ruderal plants, often referred to as “weeds”, as its starting point. From this attention to spontaneous vegetation, he developed a body of work spanning notes, drawings, photographs, objects, texts and films, as well as projects conceived for public space. By turning his attention to marginal areas and to a nature free from any ordering, he also questioned the hierarchies of society.

This approach takes concrete form in Burning and Walking (1993): in the forecourt of Szene Salzburg, Weinberger opens up the asphalt and leaves an 8 × 8 metre plot to develop without intervention. At documenta X, he plants neophyte species originating in southern and south-eastern Europe along 100 metres of railway track. Associated with this event, the photograph What is Beyond Plants is at One with Them (1997) measures 124 × 85 cm and is issued in an edition of five, with three artist’s proofs in addition. Other photographs mark points in his work: Green Man (2004), measuring 105 × 105 cm, is listed as artist’s proof 1/3; Baumfest (1977), measuring 70 × 60 cm, as the fifth copy in an edition of five, with three artist’s proofs. Invited to the Austrian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2009, he took part in documenta 14 in 2017, in Athens and Kassel. He lived in Vienna and Gars am Kamp, Austria.

Works recorded at auction

Germann

Untitled, 1986

Oil pastel and pencil on paper.

Original catalogue wording

Ohne Titel, 1986
Ölkreide und Bleistift auf Papier.

Date to be documented

Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed

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