Dietmar Kainrath

Zitate

From 18 February 2012 to 27 April 2012, the freelance caricaturist Dietmar Kainrath will be enriching Red Bull's Hangar-7 for the third time round with an exhibition of his work from the "Zitate" series. The exhibition will run from 18.02. 2012 until 27.04. 2012. And as an added bonus, the exhibition will include an illustrated selection of prominent world figures from the past two-and-a-half thousand years, from Aristotle to Lagerfeld and Qualtinger, through to Count Zeppelin.

Dietmar Kainrath, born 8 September 1942 in Innsbruck, Austria, had a keen interest in caricature while still at art school. But his fascination for the subject soon gave way to his lust for life, at least temporarily. He spent several years in various major cities throughout Europe and even worked in a circus in Germany. After his return to Innsbruck and the birth of his son, his life plan changed and he began working as a freelance commercial artist. But it wasn't until the end of the '70s that he began to make a career out of his real passion - caricature. Kainrath currently lives in Tyrol with his wife Verena.

The Innsbruck artist became famous for numerous exhibitions in Austria, Germany and the USA. His most successful illustrations include his 60 caricatures for Charles Bukowski's novel Barfly. His first exhibition as a freelance caricaturist came in 1979, on the subject of alcohol. Though he still had plenty of design orders to fulfil, the number of companies that appreciated his art continued to grow, leading to illustrations for Porsche, Mercedes, Austrian Airlines, Weltwoche, Penthouse and Playboy. His cartoons on the subjects of Tyrol, law, politics, addiction and sport appeared in many national and international publications. Dietmar Kainrath's role models include the Romanian-American illustrator and cartoonist Saul Steinberg, the French illustrator and writer Tomi Ungerer, and Paul Flora. His most recent activities include working as a cartoonist for the magazine The Red Bulletin and for the TV station Servus TV.

In his current exhibition Zitate, Kainrath applies his trademark style of humour – always relevant but never offensive – to statements by various famous people such as Udo Lindenberg, Gérard Depardieu, Woody Allen, Barack Obama, Klaus Kinski, Heinrich Böll and, last but not least, Dietrich Mateschitz. An integral component of these caricatures are the cans, as seen in Red Bulletin, which are drawn in a simple, controlled style and without the use of a ruler. Sometimes as silent observers, sometimes offering comments. Ink pens, a fine brush and conservative use of watercolours are typical of Dietmar Kainrath's drawing style.