Rachel Whiteread

For over three decades, Rachel Whiteread has materialized the intangible. Her sculptures make voids visible and awaken memories of that which has been irretrievably lost. For the first time in Austria, the Belvedere 21 shows a cross-section of the renowned British artist's work.

Rachel Whiteread is one of the leading international artists of her generation. Born 1963 in London, she was the first woman to win the prestigious Turner Prize in 1993 and went on to represent the UK at the 1997 Venice Biennale. In Vienna, she is principally known for her Holocaust memorial at the Judenplatz. With this monument, the British artist left a lasting mark on the city and transformed the discourse surrounding remembrance. For her casts of empty spaces that range in scale from the monumental to the intimate Whiteread uses industrial materials such as plaster, concrete, resin, rubber, metal, and paper. Despite their minimalist language and severity, her sculptures have a poetic quality and evoke personal and universal human experiences and memories.

For the first time in Austria, Belvedere 21 shows a cross-section of Rachel Whiteread's entire oeuvre. The range of sculptures on view covers casts of entire rooms and architectural features such as floors, doors, and windows as well as negative casts of domestic objects such as tables, boxes, and water bottles. Also on view are milestones from Whiteread's career, such as Closet and Mantle (both from 1988) as well as Untitled (Twenty-Five Spaces) from 1995. A special emphasis of the exhibition is focused on her memorial for the Austrian Jewish victims of the Holocaust, first unveiled in 2000 at the Judenplatz in Vienna.

Curated by Harald Krejci.

#Whiteread21


The exhibition was organised by the Tate Britain, London, together with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., in cooperation with the Belvedere 21, Vienna, and the Saint Louis Art Museum.
 
Supported by the British Council Austria.