Norbert Pümpel (born 1956 in Innsbruck, Austria) is a visual artist who lives and works in Drosendorf an der Thaya in Austria.
Biography Pümpel studied mathematics, physics and philosophy but did not graduate. He did not attend an art academy; as an artist, he is self-taught. His artistic career began in the late 1970s in the field of conceptual art. His works include entropic drawings (from 1976), laser projects (1980), works on the theory of black holes (1981) and on Schrödinger’s cat paradox. In 1991, Pümpel took up a lectureship in sculptural design at the University of Innsbruck, and in 1994–95 he gave lectures on the subject of ‘Space in Contemporary Art’ at the same university. In 2008, Pümpel moved from Landeck (Tyrol) to Götzis (Vorarlberg) and opened a studio in Hohenems in 2011. In 2020, he moved to Drosendorf and set up his studio in the Bergamtshaus.Norbert Pümpel, Alles ist bedeutend oder unbedeutend gleichermaßen, Verlag für moderne Kunst Wien, 2020 Wikipedia German page, abgerufen am 13.08.2026
University teaching 1981: Lecture at the Sky Art Conference Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge Mass. 1991: Lecture on Sculpture Leopold Franzens Universität Innsbruck 1994/95 Lecture Space in Contemporary Art Leopold Franzens Universität InnsbruckA.Kölbl, G. Larcher, J. Rauchenberger, ENTGEGEN Religion, Gedächtnis, Körper in der Gegenwartskunst, Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit, Deutschland, 1997 p. 264
Introduction Reality has evaporated
"Since the 1970s he has developed an art that operates at the interface of natural science, philosophy and theology, circling – on continually spiraling paths of thought – the old question of the possibility and the limits of human knowledge and, by extension, orbiting the potential of the image and its powers compared with reality." (Harald Kimpel, 2011)
What are at first questions of physics give way more and more to problems of philosophy and the theory of knowledge. It is evident that the artist, as a part of the universe, reflects on it and on himself: "Part of Universe Reflecting Part of Universe" (2004), a series of small diptychs first shown in the "Kraftwerk Peripher" exhibition organized by Christoph Bertsch in the Imst/Au power station. Some of the works now form part of the Liaunig Collection.
Peace policy is a frequent topic in Pümpel's work, starting with the monumental drawing "Probability Statement on a Guernica in the Late 20th Century" (1982). "In 1982, when N. Pümpel developed an infinite panorama of entropy under the title 'Probability Statement on a Guernica in the Late 20th Century', he simultaneously defined the beginning and endpoint for his future art. So completely had the artist eliminated the visible with his radical statement about the potential consequences of theory become practice, so fundamentally destroyed all form in shaping shapelessness, that – having depicted the irreversible state of chaos – there remained nothing capable of depiction. The very framework of matter had shattered and been dissolved once and for all in universal disorder. At an early point in his biography, therefore, the artist had adopted an extreme position with his views of nothingness, with an uncompromising message that could not but call into question any further form of constructive work." (Harald Kimpel, 1990) The nuclear threat is also a recurrent subject with Pümpel the physicist. In 1989, he created the first Scientific Disaster Series (1990), his first ash works on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Between 2009 and 2011, too, Pümpel created large-format paper works under the title "Nuclear Solstice" on the subject of the nuclear tests conducted in the 1940s and 50s. Five large works from this group are now in the Liaunig Collection.
In his latest series of works, entitled "Condensates", Pümpel returns to the working methods of the natural sciences, employing laboratory-style test series to develop self-organizing image systems. "The works describe states of probability, blurring all spatial structures in new aggregate states and creating a liquid, fleeting, wave-dynamic image of the world." (Harald Kimpel, 2014)Anna Fliri in: Museum Liaunig, Sammlungskatalog 2, Suha/Neuhaus 2015 translated by Chris Marsh From 1992 to 2002 Member of the Cultural Council of the Tyrolean State Government. In 2008, he moved to Götzis, Vorarlberg, Austria. In 2010, he was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit to the Republic of Austria. From 2010 to 2016, he was a member of the executive board of the Professional Association of Visual Artists in Vorarlberg. 2011 opened a new studio in Hohenems, Austria.Christoph Bertsch in: Paul Naredi Rainer Lukas Madersbacher, Kunst in Tirol vom Barock bis in die Gegenwart, Leopold-Franzens-Universität, Tyrolia Verlag Innsbruck, Wien, 2007, p. 716
Major works
Hammerschlag Nr. 2, 1978 Series in three parts; c. 90 x 190 cm, exhibited: Galerie Krinzinger Innsbruck (A) 1979, and Bregenz Palais Thurn und Taxis, 1979; published in: Peter Weiermair, Medium Zeichnung, Allerheiligenpresse Innsbruck 1979, and J.M. Seebacher, Wahrnehmen, Palais Thurn und Taxis, Bregenz, 1979 (Graphic Collection Albertina Vienna) Stars and Stripes Projekt, 1981 6 Picture groups of four parts, mixed media and collage on primed paper, 100 x 276 cm to 100 x 1075 cm, exhibited and published in "Künstler aus Tirol", Pécsi Galéria, Pecs (Hungary), 1986; (Public art collection in the center of Alpbach: Schrödinger hall) Probability Statement to a Guernica in the Late 20th Century, 1982 24 parts - Installation, 291 x 929,6 cm; exhibites ati "Zukunftsräume – Bildwelten und Weltbilder der Science Fiction", curated by Harald Kimpel, Orangerie, Kassel (Germany), 29. 4. bis 17. 6. 1984 and "Zukunftsräume – Bildwelten und Weltbilder der Science Fiction" Erlangen(G), Städtische Galerie in summer 1984 and also at "Die Vertikale Gefahr. Luftkrieg in der Kunst" [zum 50. Jahrestag der Zerstörung Kassels], documenta- Halle Kassel, 24. 9. bis 31. 10. 1993 as well as at the personal exhibition "Wahrscheinliche Aussage zu einem Guernica des späten 20. Jahrhunderts" at the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, 28. 1. bis 20. 2. 2005 published in: Die vertikale Gefahr, Luftkrieg in der Kunst, Marburg 1993 and in Zona Ovest, Skarabäus Studienverlag, Innsbruck, Wien, München 2007 und in Kunst in Tirol, P: Naredi-Rainer, L. Madersbacher, Innsbruck 2007ebd.: S. 392 und S. 716 Das Große Stadion, 1983 mixed media on primed paper, 3 parts: 126 x 210 cm. Exhibited 1984 at "Orwell und die Gegenwart" in the Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts in Wien (Katalog)"1984" Orwell und die Gegenwart, Ausstellungskatalog Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts / MUMOK Wien, 1984, S. 179 Heinrich – Heine – Zyklus, 1986 Series of 14 parts, each: 126 x 90 cm, published in: N. Pümpel, Arbeiten 1977–87, Landeck (A), 1987 (Property: Bank Austria Vienna Austria) White Fire Curtain, 1990 Egg tempera and ashes on canvas, 190 x 250 cm published in: Harald Kimpel, Die Schwerkraft der Bilder, N. Pümpels kreativer Beitrag zur Theorie der unterlassenen Praxis, in: N. Pümpel, 238,0289, Arbeiten über die universellen Naturkonstanten und die Atombombe, Landeck (Austria), 1990 exhibited and published in: Harald Kimpel; Der Luftkrieg in der Kunst, Kassel, documenta Halle, 1993 Apricot Disaster 2009, mixed media on paper, 154 x 114 cm (owned by the Republic of Austria: the Federal Artotheque Vienna)Online-Sammlungspräsentation der Artothek des Bundes , accessed 10 September 2012. Scientific Disaster No III, 1990 Egg tempera, cadmiumred and ashes on canvas, 120 x 125 cm exhibited at "Caution – Art" at the Thomas Segal Gallery Boston, 1991 (private property) Part of Universe Reflecting Part of Universe, 2003 Four-part work on canvas on wood, 60 x 204 cm, exhibited and published in: Kraftwerk Peripher, Imst-Au, 2004 and at "Realität und Abstraktion 2" Museum Liaunig, 2012 (private property) (First Lightning) Dark Lightning (Joe1) 2011, mixed media on paper 154 x 114 cm (private property) Devastated Land and South Pacific Winter Series, 2012 – 2013
Indeterminate Land, 2012 – 2015 Starting in 2012, Pümpel used abstract space, a "play of apparent nothingness and matter" (Kurzemann), to develop works in which material is – quasi accidentally – condensed, deposited and accumulated. These more clearly structured pictorial universes are suggestive of atmosphere and landscapes with sometimes clear and sometimes diffuse horizons. What is uncertain is whether this world is liquid, gaseous or solid. It is the image of a world that defies classification or equation with a specific region.Pümpel's artistic methodology frequently incorporates elements of chance and gradual development, with individual works on paper and canvas taking weeks or months to complete. His structured creative process focuses on systemic organization and deliberate decision-making. To execute these works, he utilizes medium combinations including oils, bitumen, and chemical solutions applied directly onto canvas and thin Chinese rice paper.
Objects on Wittgenstein, 2011 – 2013
Fleeting Memorials, 2012 – 2015 Pümpel's series of Fleeting Memorials are approximately square works on paper of different sizes measuring between about 30 x 33 cm and 46 x 43 cm. They comprise two sheets of Wenzhou paper and bear a ten-digit number and a date. The number refers to the number of human beings on earth at the time of completion of the work. The works are subject to visible change in the course of time. Thanks to the materials used, the paper and the colours darken in the first twenty, thirty years. The paper will start to become brittle until, after a hundred years or so, it will perhaps disintegrate. The processes cannot be calculated precisely as they depend on environmental factors relating to the air, humidity and light
Condensates 2013 – 2015 Pümpel bases his latest series of works on thoughts on Bose-Einstein condensation: the unorthodox behavioural pattern displayed by matter in an ultra-cold state. At such temperatures, quantum effects can for the first time be observed on a macroscopic scale and described as a wave function. A discontinuous view of the world is replaced by a continuum of superfluid material in the form of an oscillation with no defined localisation. The artist's works describe states of probability in new aggregate states blurring all spatial structures and offering a liquid, fleeting, wave-dynamic image. (Harald Kimpel, Kassel 2013, translated by Chris Marsh)
Objects 2016 - 2017
Exhibitions
Since 1978 exhibitions in Europe, USA and Japan: 1979 Europa 79, Stuttgart, Germany. Curated by Hans-Jürgen Müller, Ursula Schurr and Max Hetzler, with Tony Cragg, Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente and othersKunstforum International Bd. 36, Mainz 1979, S. 130–132 1984 Orwell und die Gegenwart, Museum of the 20th Century in Vienna/A, with Jochen Gerz, Jörg Immendorff, Robert Morris, Roy Lichtenstein and others; (Katalog)"1984" Orwell und die Gegenwart, Exhibition catalog Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts / Museum moderner Kunst, Wien 1984, S. 179 1985 Wahrscheinliche Bilder, First one man museum exhibition in the State and Municipal Art Collections, the Bellevue Palace, Kassel, Germany. 1992 Concept Space, Shibukawa, Japan 1993 Die Vertikale Gefahr. Der Luftkrieg in der Kunst, Kassel documenta Halle, with Günther Uecker, Gerhard Richter, Arnulf Rainer and others;Harald Kimpel, Die vertikale Gefahr. Luftkrieg in der Kunst. Begleitbuch zur gleichnamigen Ausstellung, Jonas Verlag, Marburg 1993, S. 64–67 1996 Dies ist kein Bild, Galerie St. Barbara Osterfestival Innsbruck/A 1997 Entgegen – religion.gedächtnis.körper, Graz, with Anish Kapoor, Roman Opalka, Joseph Beuys;Kölbl, Larcher, Rauchenberger, ENTGEGEN Religion. Gedächtnis. Körper, Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern- Ruit 1997 S.236f. 1999 Objective and Observed Files, Concept Space, Shibukawa, Japan 2002 Micro Stills, Concept Space, Shibukawa, Japan