room for humour
Press Archive 2014
"People and Landscape", Anton Atzenhofer and Kurt Neubauer, Stadttheater Fürth,
Fürther Nachrichten, 30.03.2014, CLAUDIA SCHULLER
Charm with bite
A joint exhibition with Atzenhofer and Neubauer in the Stadttheater
FÜRTH - Two artists from Nuremberg exhibiting in Fürth: They fit excellently together, the works of graphic artist Kurt Neubauer and illustrator Anton Atzenhofer, which are currently presented in the foyer of the Stadttheater by Art-Agency Hammond. Both focus in their paintings on realism and in some details on photographic accuracy but with addition of a healthy dose of imagination.

Anton Atzenhofer takes the viewer to Bella Italia,
Turkey, Sète in the south of France and to Nuremberg. There, he invites a beautiful, well-endowed stranger to the Hauptmarkt between fruit
and vegetable market stalls. In Italy, Venice is in focus and Casanova in particular. Atzenhofer paints memoirs by the amorous hero
with a wink. He shows him chasing a bewigged lady, riding in a gondola and climbing on the roofs of the Doge's Palace.
There are also stylish portraits of Jane Marple and Holly Golightly aka Audrey Hepburn. The best,
however, are neither his charming ink-images nor the massive and powerful gouaches, but the pastel works, which demonstrate the quality of his drawing .In these, a shark with sharp eyes is dissected
as well as a female body. Overall, this is a very artistic approach to graphic design, with lyrical comic elements or cosmopolitan idylls.
Kurt Neubauer joins where Atzenhofer leaves the Franconian homeland, namely in Nuremberg's city centre. A picture in the background shows the Frauenkirche at the Hauptmarkt. Then he shows unflattering images from the region: skyscrapers in Langwasser, highway exits, as they actually exist and the road to the Frankencenter, as everyone was driving home. Schnepfenreuth, Kraftshof, half-timbered buildings and vegetable cultivation in Knoblauchsland. Yes, this is like looking through the car window.
Road signs and panels are, at least for the graphic artist, always an issue and they are woven tightly into the picture. Here, city and country merge, man and the environment. The poster advertises to the passers-by or are they the ones advertised? Neubauer looks equally at both of these. The heavy purple of the cloudy sky is so typical of the area that it makes us smile and these tall, skinny trees could stand anywhere in Mittelfranken.
A small slice of paradise, particularly when no people are in the picture. The acrylics are as straight-forward and honest as the locals.
Neubauer connects this with visions of Venice; watercolours of magnificent panoramas which reflect his view of the lagoon
city.