Bitumen
As a product of petroleum, the bitumen has a dark-colored, semi-solid, meltable structure. Its forms is very close to that of the crude oil itself, so it naturally acts as a reference to this primal substance. Today we mainly find the material in asphalt.
Shell and stone chips
Shell chips arise from the shell remains of dead mollusks. Their lime shells are applied in the art. The material comes from beaches along the upper Adriatic, mostly in the form of chippings, so as not to appear too decorative.
Wood, leaves, grass
Wood, in the form of chips and pieces of bark, are often included in the pictures, but also other components of the tree, such as leaves or needles. Symbolically, wood stands for a way of life in harmony with nature, in a distinctly harsh, but also healthy form.
Plastic
Plastic is like bitumen, but is a petroleum product that is transformed completely differently; both are often combined. The formless bitumen base becomes a reference back to the starting point, to the origin of the plastic, which is often only scattered in the form of particles.
The opening of the exhibition: “CHRIST – BILD UND SINNBILD”, showing exclusively pictures by Franz Dürnberger, took place on April 25, 2017. The location of the exhibition was the Archbishop’s Palace (“Bischofshaus”) in the center of Salzburg.
Some of the pictures that were shown at this exhibition date back years (from 2012). For the purposes of this exhibition, however, they underwent revision, some of them considerably so. The final results reflect an internal process in the artist himself, in terms of both color and material.
These religious works – if they can briefly be characterized as such, live and give live, through the expressive force of a reduced formal language and their symbolism. The latter is often reinforced by natural or plastic materials. In addition, there is usually a very strong contrast between dark and light, combined with the often used triad of the basic colors.
The somewhat larger pictures of the exhibition, with a direct reference to the topic (“CHRIST – BILD”) are not “devotional pictures” or “icons” in the traditional sense. However, they move constructively within this field and are original, as well as spiritually “charged”. (Biblical texts – are available – and correspond to the pictures and assist the attentive viewer in the understanding this background.) More..
