published on the occasion of the exhibition „The Art of Mr. Nestler“

October 24, 2014-February 22, 2015, Neue Galerie Graz / Universalmuseum Joanneum

Editors: Katrin Bucher Trantow, Peter Pakesch
Berlin/Munich/Boston: Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2015
124 pages, illustrated
German with English abstracts of the exhibition concept and main texts by Katrin Bucher-Trantow, Günther Holler-Schuster and Elisabeth Fiedler
ISBN 978-3-11-041270-3

As a sculptor, graphic artist, performer and art teacher, Norbert Nestler (1942–2014) had a longstanding influence on the art world in Graz. In a retrospective developed in cooperation with the artist, featuring final tube graphics devised for the staircase, Neue Galerie Graz presented a chronological selection (1967‑2014) of objects, installations and graphical works of the artist who passed away in January 2014.

Originally a painter, Norbert Nestler explored the penetration of space. Expanding dimensions, he developed translucent graphics, portable sculptures, and parasitic objects. His oeuvre is closely linked to developments in materials and media since the 1960s, whose permeable properties he tested continuously. Unusual materials, experiments and performative actions are characteristic of Nestler’s cross-media oeuvre.

The exhibition represented the portrait of a graphic artist and maker of objects in the sense of object art across different media and kinetic, performative fusion.