Pre-1962

Graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 1958, Kiki Kogelnik’s work was firmly rooted in the traditions of modernism. Her paintings were made from a palette of somber colors and flat painterly forms, reflecting the sensibilities of a postwar Europe. The suggestion of ideas of landscape appeared to emerge as a result of her travels across Europe, before discovering Paris and its international community of artists and thinkers prompts Kogelnik to start embracing vibrant colors combined with expressive mark making. After visiting New York for three weeks in April 1961, she returned to Europe newly energized to make work for her first solo exhibition at Galerie St. Stephan in Vienna with titles that referenced what was to be her new life in English as well as ones that looked back in German, and using the yet to be named acrylic paint. At the beginning of the 60s, her work started its transition to figuration, and she used scissors for the first time, cutting into abstract works on paper.