The Women desire Klemmer

Robert Klemmer was born in Rappoltschlag in Lower Austria in 1938 and was active in the Vienna actionist scene, though also influenced by early appearances of Pop Art in Austria. In his works, he engaged with his own body, yet even more with his person and how this was perceived. He created a number of doppelgänger of himself using a form of realism that was rare at the time. Although depictions of himself determine the subject of his pictures, these do not appear narcissistic, but rather reflective. In the course of the Pop Art movement, Klemmer was engaged with the ‘mediatisation of reality’, meaning he isolated actions or glimpses into his everyday reality and dramatically exaggerated them. He engaged with new materials, likewise with the flood of stimuli generated by consumerism. At the age of just 33 Robert Klemmer died tragically in Vienna in 1971. Lying in a bath, he was suffocated by fumes from a flow heater, into the chimney of which a brick had fallen. In 2020 Robert Klemmer was prominently represented in the Albertina Modern with the opening exhibition ‘The Beginning. Kunst in Österreich 1945 bis 1980’. This led to a rediscovery of the artist. In his work ‘The Women Desire Klemmer’, the artist sits in an unknown train station, in the centre of the picture, on a chair, surrounded by four attractive ladies. He wears a conspicuous, green suit, yet seems laidback and relaxed in the position he sits in. The women, in contrast, are revealingly dressed, wearing alluring negligées and lingerie. In the background, we see poster-covered walls – on the posters the women who desire Klemmer are displayed. In his composition, the picture is divided into horizontal and vertical lines; in the foreground the horizontally aligned train tracks form a division to the middle and background. The main scene in the centre of the picture is additionally accentuated by means of the slender pillars and the ceiling repeats the lines created by the tracks. In terms of colours, the artist has not held back: strong contrasts are formed by employing the complementary colours blue and yellow, reddish-brown tones dominate the picture and, in the centre, Klemmer stands out in an emerald-coloured suit. This bizarre scene leaves the viewer with several unanswered questions: are the ladies really there, or are they a fantasy yearned for by the artist? Is it meant to depict the artist as a ‘womaniser’, given that he is desired and courted by advertising models? Entirely in line with Klemmer’s style, he leaves it up to viewers to make their own interpretation.