Design and Art Australia Online

Karl Wiebke (b. 1944, Detmold, Germany) studied Fine Art at the Hochschule für bildende Kunst, Hamburg, between 1972-76 before arriving in Perth, Australia in 1981.

Karl Wiebke is a non-objective, minimalist artist of innovation and originality, who constantly pushes the boundaries and definition of both painting as a noun and verb – object and action. Wiebke’s daily practice is in dialogue with the history of painting, predominantly abstraction or reductivism, stating “my work explores what it means to paint” and likewise, “I make work which stands for itself and doesn’t refer to anything outside itself”. Influenced by the Concrete art movement and Theo van Doesburg’s manifesto, Wiebke believes that painting must be free of any symbolic references, and therefore stand on its own.

Known for painting bodies of work that often require an endurance-like stamina executed over lengthy periods of time, Wiebke consistently demonstrates a meticulous and systematic approach to his practice that investigates concepts of structures, time, seriality and repetition. Whether the paint is applied to a canvas, board, circular wooden dowel, enamel ring, or paper surface or ground, these ongoing series situate the viewer in the experience of his process, prompting a constant inquiry as to the nature of painting.

Since his first solo exhibition in 1968 at Die Malwand, Rotenburg, Germany, Wiebke has exhibited consistently in Germany, India, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney. He has been the recipient of several notable awards including the Australia Council Artists Development Fellowships Grant (1990); the Australian-India Council Grant (1999); and an Arts WA Creative Development Grant Fellowship (2000).

Wiebke’s contribution to Australian painting was celebrated in 1994 with a major retrospective exhibition, Karl Wiebke: Painting 1971-1993 at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, and recently the survey exhibition Karl Wiebke: Painting 1994-2012 (2012) held at the ANU Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra. In 2013, Wiebke’s paintings featured in the Wesfarmers Collection touring exhibition Luminous Worlds at the Art Gallery of Western Australia and Charles Darwin University Art Gallery. In 2014, the exhibition will be on view at the National Library of Australia, Canberra; the Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide; and in 2015 at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne.

Wiebke’s work is represented in numerous museum collections including National Gallery of Australia, Museum of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of Western Australia, as well as significant corporate collections and the Holmes à Court Collection, Perth and private collections in Germany, India, United Kingdom and Australia. Wiebke works and lives in Melbourne.

Writers:

Date written:

2013

Last updated:

2013