Greta SCHÖDL Italian - Austrian, b. 1929
Untitled, 1990s
Gold leaf on hemp canvas mounted with an antique paper book page, dried petals and leaves, rice paper, ink, and gold leaf.
44 x 120 cm
Framed: 57 x 137 cm
Framed: 57 x 137 cm
Greta SCHLÖDL (b. 1929) is one of the most significant female artists working in the field of Poesia Visiva (or visual poetry). Active sinvce the 1960s, when the presence of...
Greta SCHLÖDL (b. 1929) is one of the most significant female artists working in the field of Poesia Visiva (or visual poetry). Active sinvce the 1960s, when the presence of female artists using text represented a minority, Schödl has spent the last few years refining a unique visual language through a series of mythical compositions. Her work incorporates letters and symbols, obsessively repeated until they become abstract, echoing the fervent repetition of Hanne Darboven and the symbolism of Tomaso Binga.
Geometrical shapes and bold signs intertwine with words, illuminated by gold leaf and embroidered with iron wires, merging in unison on different surfaces: handmade paper, books, personal letters, maps and familiar objects often associated with the domestic sphere, such as ironing boards, pillowcases and sheets. The fusion of these materials and the Sütterlin, the old German language, refer to the artist’s Austrian heritage and ancestral past.
Born in Hollabrunn, Austria, Schödl currently lives and works in Bologna, Italy. She graduated from the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna in 1953 before permanently moving to Italy in 1959. After ceasing her practice temporarily to raise a family, Schödl returned to making work in the mid-1960s and has since exhibited widely in institutions around the world.
She was recently the subject of an extensive solo show 'Street Poetry' at Phileas, The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art, in Vienna (2025). In 2024, her solo retrospective 'Time doesn’t exist (Il tempo non esiste)' was presented at Fondazione del Monte in Bologna, and her work was included in the 60th Venice Biennale, 'Stranieri Ovunque/Foreigners Everywhere', curated by Adriano Pedrosa. Work by Schödl may be found in numerous collections around the world, including the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy; MART, Rovereto, Italy; MAGA (Gallarate Art Museum), Varese, Italy; King St Stephen Museum, Székesfehérvár, Hungary; the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC, USA; and the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Miami Beach, FL, USA.
Geometrical shapes and bold signs intertwine with words, illuminated by gold leaf and embroidered with iron wires, merging in unison on different surfaces: handmade paper, books, personal letters, maps and familiar objects often associated with the domestic sphere, such as ironing boards, pillowcases and sheets. The fusion of these materials and the Sütterlin, the old German language, refer to the artist’s Austrian heritage and ancestral past.
Born in Hollabrunn, Austria, Schödl currently lives and works in Bologna, Italy. She graduated from the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna in 1953 before permanently moving to Italy in 1959. After ceasing her practice temporarily to raise a family, Schödl returned to making work in the mid-1960s and has since exhibited widely in institutions around the world.
She was recently the subject of an extensive solo show 'Street Poetry' at Phileas, The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art, in Vienna (2025). In 2024, her solo retrospective 'Time doesn’t exist (Il tempo non esiste)' was presented at Fondazione del Monte in Bologna, and her work was included in the 60th Venice Biennale, 'Stranieri Ovunque/Foreigners Everywhere', curated by Adriano Pedrosa. Work by Schödl may be found in numerous collections around the world, including the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy; MART, Rovereto, Italy; MAGA (Gallarate Art Museum), Varese, Italy; King St Stephen Museum, Székesfehérvár, Hungary; the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC, USA; and the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Miami Beach, FL, USA.