We mourn the loss of a great protagonist and pioneer of the Austrian art and cultural landscape.

 

The young Kurt Kalb began trading in antiques and painting in the early 1960s without much previous training, but equipped with the necessary sensitivity. In 1972 he opened his first own gallery in Grünangergasse, which he turned into a place for the avant-garde. Especially the Viennese Actionists - Hermann Nitsch, Günter Brus, Otto Muehl - at that time less known for their artistic innovations than for actions that agitated and disturbed a then still conservative society, Kurt Kalb exhibited uncompromisingly and consistently. 

 

Galerie Kalb remained true to its extravagant program in its rooms on Bäckerstraße, showing Maria Lassnig, Daniel Spoerri as well as Dieter Roth and Rudolf Polanszky, with whom the gallery owner shared a lifelong friendship.

 

Since the founding of the Konzett Gallery, Kurt Kalb has been an important mentor, friend and above all a role model for remaining an individualist and exhibiting art completely free of social conventions. We say goodbye with the greatest respect.