Exceptional watercolorist, Gottfried SALZMANN makes spring all the poetry of the cities he paints and transforms. He also explores the interaction between drawing, printmaking, photography, acrylic and oil painting. Since 1968 he exhibited in major international galleries in Europe, Japan, the United States ... Many publications have been devoted to him in french, german and english.

Artworks
Exhibitions & art fairs
Videos
Exposition "Regards"
2015Exposition 'Oeuvres récentes"
2013Gottfried SALZMANN dans son atelier à Vence
2013Gottfried SALZMANN, le peintre de l'eau - 1ere partie
2010Gottfried SALZMANN, le peintre de l'eau - 2e partie
2010Biography
1965–1968 : Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France
1963–1965 : Vienna Academy of Art, Austria
MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS
2018 : Schloss Ritzen Museum, « Salzmann / Bottet / Salzmann », Biering collection, Saalfelden, Austria
2014 : Schloss Ritzen Museum, « Gottfried Salzmann », Saalfelden, Austria
2013 : Salzburg Museum, Salzburg, « Atmosphären », Austria
2012 : Kubin-Haus Zwickledt, « Gottfried Salzmann », Wernstein, Austria
2009 : Le Carmel, « Gottfried Salzmann », Tarbes, France
2006 : Salzburg Museum, opening of the Gottfried Salzmann permanent room, Salzburg, Austria
2003 : Salzburg Museum, « Gottfried Salzmann », Salzburg, Austria.
2001 : Musée Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, La Varenne, France
1998 : Palais Bénédictine, Fécamp, France
1996 : Centre d’art Contemporain of Rouen (with Nicole Bottet), France
1993 : Musée de la Seita, Paris, France
1991 : Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum Linz, Austria ; Metropolitan Museum of Manille, Philippines ; Museum of Modern Art Rupertinium, Salzburg, Austria
1987 : Staatliche Sammlungen Schweinfurt, Germany
1982 : Albertina Museum, « Gottfried Salzmann », Vienna, Austria
1973 : Maison de la Culture d’Amiens, France
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Austria : Bozen ; Innsbruck (Galerie Bloch, Galerie Maier) ; Klagenfurt (Künsterhaus, Galerie Slama) ; Linz (OÖ Kunstverein, Galerie Grüner, Galerie Figl) ; Lusteneau (Galerie Neufeld) ; Salzburg (Galerie Welz) ; Traismauer (Fine Art Galerie) ; Vienna (Galerie Wolfgang Exner, Galerie Würthle, Galerie Stubenbastei, Galerie Contact, Galerie Wolfrum)
Belgium : Brussels
England : London (Albermale Gallery)
France : Deauville ; Paris (Galerie Arcturus, Galerie Flak, Esplanade de la Défense – Espace Raymond Moretti, Galerie de l’Atelier Lambert, Galerie l’Œil Sévigné, Hôtel de Ville, Galerie Nichido, Galerie Etienne de Causans, Galerie Joël Knafo Art) ; Rouen (Centre d’Art Contemporain) ; Tours
Germany : Aix-la-Chapelle ; Darmstadt (Galerie Netuschil) ; Düsseldorf (Galerie Walther) ; Francfort ; Hambourg (Galerie Lochte) ; Krefeld (Galerie Peerlings) ; Koln (Galerie Boisserée) ; Mayence ; Munich (Galerie Gunzenhauser, Galerie Seifert-Binder) ; Nüremberg ; Schweinfurt ; Stuttgart ; Treves (Galerie Palais Walderdorff)
Hongrie : Budapest
Japan : Fukuoka (Galerie Nichido) ; Tokyo (Galerie Nichido)
Liechtenstein : Vaduz (Galerie Haas)
Philippines : Manille
Poland : Warsaw
Switzerland : Basel; Bern (Galerie Vita); Fribourg (Galerie Ollier); Lausanne
United-States : New-York (Austrian Institut, K.P.F. Gallery, Franklin Bowles Gallery) ; San Francisco (Franklin Bowles Gallery) ; Washington DC (Bader Gallery)
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Austria : Salzburg Museum, Salzburg ; Albertina Museum, Vienna ; Rupertinum Museum der Moderne, Salzburg ; Oberösterreichisches Landesmuseum, Linz ; Museum Essl, Vienna ; Sammlung Leopold, Vienna ; Strabag SE Kunstforum, Vienna
China : Jim Hildebrandt – Bain Capital Asia, LLC, Hong Kong
France : Musée de la Ville de Paris ; Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris ; Musée de Montbéliard, Montbéliard
Lichtenstein : Kunstmuseum, Vaduz ; Batliner Collection
Philippines : Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Manille
South Korea : Seoul Museum, Seoul
Switzerland : Musée Jenisch Vevey, Vevey
United States : SL Green Corporation, New York ; Mark Gudis, SAC Capital Advisors, Connecticut
PRIZES
1977 : International Award for Watercolor, Roma, Italy
1975 : Prize Drawing “ Salzburger Wirschatskammer ”, Austria
1972 : Prize Drawing David-Weill, Paris – Theodor Körner Prize, Vienna, Austria
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2017 : « Gottfried Salzmann, D’en haut et d’en bas », Galerie Arcturus, Paris
2015 : « Gottfried Salzmann, Regards », Galerie Arcturus, Paris
2013 : N. Schaffer, M. Hochleitner, « Gottfried Salzmann, Cityscapes/Stadtlandschaften/Paysages urbains : From Paris to New York », Ed. Prestel, Munchen, London, New-York
2012 : G. Salzmann, R. Widder, « Gottfried Salzmann : Kunsthandel Widder », Publication PN1, Weitra
2010 : N. Bottet, G. Salzmann, « Falaises de verre », R. et L. Dutrou, Paris ;
« Gottfried Salzmann, Décollages, Recollages », Galerie Arcturus, Paris
2008 : « Gottfried Salzmann, Regards sur le Défense », Galerie Arcturus, Paris
2007 : « Nos plus belles rencontres 12 artistes dans l’intimité de leur atelier »,Edition Megastar, Poitiers
2006 : P. Bonafoux, N. Schaffer, « Gottfried Salzmann », Thalia, Paris et Edition Welz, Salzburg ;
« Gottfried Salzmann, Oeuvres récentes», Galerie Arcturus, Paris
2004 : « Gottfried Salzmann, Villes miroirs », Galerie Arcturus, Paris
2003 : N. Schaffer, « Gottfried Salzmann, Salzburg, Paris, New York … Werke 1967-2002 », Salzburger Museum Carolino Augusteum, Salzburg
2000 : G. Salzmann, « Aquarelle, Landschaften und Städte; von der Idee zum reinen Aquarell », Callwey, Munchen
1999 : G. Salzmann, « Salzmann, Poesie der Städte, Poesie de ville », Galerie Peerlings, Kampen
1998 : N. Bottet, « Salzmann », Palais Bénédictine, Fécamp ;
G. Salzmann, O. Breicha, « Salzmann – Spiegelungen : Welt im Spiegel », Galerie Welz, Salzburg
1997 : M. Hérissé, « Salzmann, Prieuré de Saint Cosme, Tours, juillet-août 1997, les villes », Galerie Flak, Paris
1995 : N. Bottet, G. Salzmann, « Salzmann, Wasser-Spiegelungen », Galerie Welz, Salzburg
1993 : Y. Kobry, « L’aquarelle aujourd’hui, Abrahami, Levine, Salzmann, Szafran », Musée-Galerie de la Seita, Paris
1991 : E.R. Heller, G. Salzmann, « Gottfried Salzmann, Paysages urbains et Paysages de la nature », Landesmuseum, Linz
1989 : G. Salzmann, « Gottfried Salzmann, Landscapes and cityscapes », Albemarle Gallery, London ;
J-P. Sartre, G. Salzmann, « Situations de New-York », lithographies de G. Salzmann, Bibliophiles de France, Paris
1988 : B. Denvir, G. Salzmann, « Gottfried Salzmann, Städte », Galerie Welz, Salzburg;
« Gottfried Salzmann, Exposition d’aquarelles et lithographies », Galerie Paul Valloton, Lausanne
1987 : « Aquarelles : paysages intérieurs », Galerie Atelier Lambert, Paris
1986 : W. Koschatzky, G. Salzmann « Salzmann, Aquarelle », Galerie Welz, Salzburg
1982 : W. Koschatzky, J-M. Dunoyer, « Gottfried Salzmann, Aquarelles et dessins », Albertina Museum, Vienna
1980 : G. Salzmann, « Gottfried Salzmann », Galerie Würthle, Vienna
1971 : G. Salzmann, « Gottfried Salzmann, Aquarelle und Zeichnungen », Galerie Welz, Salzburg
Press
Art reviews
If there is one technique of late 20th century art that is taboo to the avant-garde, it has to be watercolour. This is even more surprising considering the fact that art’s expansion since the 60s surely knows no aesthetic and technological bounds. Creative freedom allows the artist to make full use of all materials and techniques – from industrial to traditional artisan forms of expression. Only watercolour seems to have been tainted by the persistent abuse caused by evening classes and suchlike for lay-artists from Tuscany to northern Germany. This acts as a historical injustice, which becomes even more inconceivable considering that, in the first half of the 20th century, some of the most important artists were dedicated watercolourists, led by Paul Klee and other ‘Blue Rider’ group artists.
Inevitably, creating watercolours when their background is so closely linked to a certain era appears risky – just as risky as specialising in topographical views: urban vedutas and landscapes. Thus it appears almost as a radical counter-taboo when Gottfried Salzmann turns towards these motives using a technique that is heavily laden with an aesthetic verdict. A technique that had its last grand master in the old Oskar Kokoschka – the same technique as Gottfried Salzmann’s, yet so completely different. But the difference between Kokoschka’s watercolour drawings and Gottfried Salzmann’s unique wet in wet technique could not be starker. Salzmann is much closer to Emil Nolde.
and William turner, as well as to some of the creations of Rudolf von Alt and the still much underestimated painter Wilhelm Thöny of Graz, Austria. However, both compositionally and colouristically, Salzmann is unmistakable. Even though virtuosity is not anymore being considered a mark of artistic quality, one cannot help but honour Gottfried Salzmann as the possibly most virtuous and complex watercolourist of the last few decades. Salzmann skillfully turns the virgin white paper into an expressional statement equal to colour whilst also using it to stabilise his compositions. His water and paint splashes appear to have been applied accidentally. Yet they are of such an exquisiteness that does not appear sweet or superficial because, in an almost Japonistic balance, it is merely a part of the complete concept: it never exists just for its own sake.
For the Albertina, the collection of Salzmann watercolours owned by the museum is one of the most important treasures. Following the line from Albrecht Dürer, Rudolf von Alt and the later Klee, Salzmann establishes himself as rightful heir and successor, not as epigone. Gottfried Salzmann rehabilitated not only a seemingly long exhausted genre such as that of landscape art and urban vedutas, but also the limitless possibilities of a technique that, for unjustified reasons, has remained in the shadows for too long.
Dr. Klaus Albrecht SCHRODER