Greta Schödl
TRACES OF MY LIFE
23.05.2026 – 08.11.2026
Greta Schödl (b. 1929) is regarded as one of the most remarkable voices working in the genre of visual poetry. With her distinctive handwriting, the artist covers a wide variety of materials with words and symbols. Through meticulous repetition, she transforms words into ornamental patterns that exist at the intersection of typography and abstraction. Rhythmic and meditative image structures unfold with a sense of timeless validity.
THE POWER OF VISUAL POETRY
Since the 1960s, Greta Schödl has cultivated a distinctive visual language in which writing plays a central role. Since her acclaimed participation in the 2024 Venice Biennale, the artist’s work has attracted greater public interest.
Schödl uses old book pages, handmade paper, canvas, wood, stone, and even everyday objects such as dish towels, bed linen, and ironing boards as a medium for her linguistic condensation. Material names often serve as starting points: for instance, she covers a block of marble with the Italian word “marmo” (marble), writing it repeatedly across the surface. She places the word on the surface in strict linearity from left to right. In an almost meditative repetition, she writes letters and symbols until they lose their semantic legibility and transform into rhythmic image structures. In Schödl's work, writing appears as material, as a trace, and as rhythm—as something that is less read than contemplated.
Fine golden accents, which Schödl likes to place in the open spaces of vowels, give rhythm to the written fabric and visually enhance it. She also regards her own body as a source of signs: thumbprints, palm lines, the imprint of her breast or lips—all of these serve the artist as characters.
FIRST MUSEUM EXHIBITION IN AUSTRIA
Schödl’s oeuvre transcends the boundaries between poetry, painting, and conceptual art. In 2026, the artist celebrated her first museum exhibition in Austria at the Landesgalerie Niederösterreich. The exhibition showcases Schödl's artistic evolution from the 1950s to the present day, featuring approximately 150 pieces.
Raised in Hollabrunn, Greta Schödl moved to Bologna in the late 1950s, making Italy her home. After completing her studies in textile design at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna, Schödl initially created abstract works in which delicately rendered lines serve as the central formal element. She then developed her own unique combination of text and image in Bologna and established herself as an important representative of visual poetry. She has been represented at the Venice Biennale (1978, 2024) and the Sao Paulo Biennale in Brazil (1981), among others.
My work is entirely inspired by the flow of life—it is an endless stream of thoughts. I always remain the same, but the experiences I have constantly leave new traces. My works are traces of my lived life.
PERFORMANCE AND GRAPHICS
The exhibition brings together all the main groups of her oeuvre. These include the graphic series “Schwingungsfelder” (Fields of Vibration) from the 1980s and “Vibrationi” from the 1970s, in which she makes invisible energetic cycles visible. On display are drawings, paintings, diverse works on paper, various sculptural objects, marble stones, and performance photographs. In her performance “Tubo,” Schödl walks through Bologna with an artistically designed cardboard roll. This action can be understood as a powerful act of self-assertion. The extensive, very personal graphic series “Traumbilder” (Dream Images) is being shown publicly for the first time at the Landesgalerie.
Curators: Gerda Ridler and Berthold Ecker