Modern paper waste as a basis for ironic, refreshing, and clearly composed collages.

When Picasso and Co. first cut up their newspaper to make a picture out of it, it was a step forward for the century. Collage became a standard medium not only for artists; its scope of application is almost limitless. As a stylistic device of overlay, superimposition, of fragment and quotation, collage today is an integral part of everyday visual culture, starting with advertising and extending to student drawings. Even the classical form, the gluing of paper parts, is still practiced. Skilful abstract creations of this kind can currently be seen at an exhibition in the Innsbruck gallery Thomas Flora. These are works by Fritz Pechmann, a native of Upper Austria born in 1956, who has been living in Innsbruck since studying theology and is a high school teacher. Pechmann approaches his collages very constructively and emphasizes completed compositions; clear color geometries play a role. He obtains his material from the major modern paper waste producers, the magazines, and the packaging industry. His private foray into recycling is amusing and refreshing because it is well staged: the possibilities of collage to articulate itself ironically and floatingly are legitimately exploited, and the spatial component also comes into play well with folds and ridges, so that lively small image constructs are the result.

Tiroler Tageszeitung, 8.Juli 1988, m.h. Magdalena Hörmann