Cranach’s Holy Productivity VOL. 28

Klaus Scherübel’s current project deals with modes of depicting space and architecture in connection with questions of artists’ self-portrayals and strategies of productivity, using the example of the painting The Holy Kinship (1510–1512) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, one of the most important painters of the German Renaissance and Reformation. With his spectacular translation of the painting’s architectural setting into a three-dimensional stage, Scherübel takes his installation that engage with the museographical genre of the period room into another dimension. Three other works conceived especially for the exhibition will the on focus of the talk as well.

Talk in German, entrance free 


Klaus Scherübel (*1968 in Bruck/Mur, lives in Montreal) worked as fashion designer in the late 1980s and studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, with Vivienne Westwood among others. Starting from a critical stance towards the fashion system, Scherübel developed a Conceptual art and Institutional critique oriented practice, operating at the intersections of art and affiliated disciplinary fields such as literature, theater, film, architecture, etc. Within his work, Scherübel adopts various roles – as an artist at work, an editor, a curator, a sponsor – to engage in a performative way with the conditions and the history of the artistic production, presentation, and reception. His œuvre encompasses expansive installations, including a dialogical relationship with photography, printmaking, painting, time-based media and text. The book plays a central role both as object and concept, hereof a relevant book has to be mentioned, Klaus Scherübel edited – Mallarmé, Das Buch, Cologne 2001. The book has been published in several languages and has become a reference in the field of artist books. He published a survey on this work in 2011 entitled Klaus Scherübel VOL. 13. Since 2013, he has been creating architectural sculptures dedicated to the preservation and expansion of Martin Kippenberger's METRO-Net project.

His work has been exhibited internationally, including the Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Düren (2023); VOX, centre de l’Image contemporaine, Montreal (2019, 2016); Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz (2016); mumok, Vienna (2015, 2012); Centro Universitário Maria Antonia USP, São Paulo (2014); S.M.A.K., Ghent (2009); MoMA PS1, New York (2009); Generali Foundation, Vienna (2008).