TBA21–Augarten resides in a building complex from the 1950s, originally designed as an artist’s studio to accommodate the workshop, home, and museum of the Austrian sculptor Gustinus Ambrosi (1893–1975). One part of the building is still dedicated to a strictly monographic presentation of his art. His museum – the Ambrosi-Museum – is adjacent to TBA21’s exhibition space but is overseen by the Belvedere, who have also inherited Ambrosi’s estate of photographs, documents, letters, etc. and incorporated this material into their excellently organized and expansive research center.

Throughout the opening show at TBA21–Augarten – Simon Starling in collaboration with SUPERFLEX—Reprototypes, Triangulations and Road Tests – the foundation also presented newly researched information on Gustinus Ambrosi in his museum, researched and collected as part of the investigation on the life and work of the Austrian artist. The documents exhibited were a selection of the records found in various archives in Vienna and Berlin. Starting with his application for membership in the NSDAP (the National Socialist German Workers’ Party) from May 1938, they represent copies of correspondences between Ambrosi and his patrons in Berlin: Albert Speer and his staff in the Reich Chancellery and the construction management of the proposed New Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Voßstraße, for which Ambrosi was commissioned to create several figures for the park. The commissions date from 1938 and 1942. The first contract was for a monumental fountain with larger-than-life figures of Orpheus and Eurydice, Diana, Bacchus, Venus, and Narcissus. The second commission from 1942 is the Maiden with Cow, from which only the models and preliminary drafts still exist. Several of these are shown at the exhibition. The last correspondence out of the Third Reich is a letter by Ambrosi from 1945 describing the destruction of his studio in the Prater, Vienna, and touching on his financial problems, the cow purchased for the second contract, and his request to Speer for help. Ambrosi’s assertion from July 4, 1945 in the context of his plea for “dispensation from the requirement to register” as a National Socialist after the war, in accordance with the denazification initiative following the prohibitive laws of May 8, 1945 (Verbotsgesetz) is reproduced in its entirety. The plea was granted. An undated handwritten note by Ambrosi from after the war comments on his biography after 1938.

The complete set of facsimile documents was on display at the exhibition. Additional information, particularly the historical account by Oliver Rathkolb, has been published in the accompanying booklet, available at the Augarten and free to be downloaded HERE.