Kollektor #1: Drago J. Prelog

“Kollektor,” the new format at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg, showcases special treasures from the museum’s collections in cabinet exhibitions: acquisitions, gifts, or rediscoveries—the “Kollektor” charts novel approaches to art from the collections.

The installation on view on level 3 at the museum’s Mönchsberg venue until March 13, 2024, turns the spotlight on the Slovenian-born Austrian painter Drago J. Prelog (1939 Celje, YU–2020 Vienna, AT). Photographic documents let us witness him in the act of painting. The “Umlaufbilder” or “circulation pictures” come into being as the artist, absorbed in thought, walks around the canvas. The performative painterly act leaves an almost desultory trace on the canvas. Prelog subsequently employs a modified remote-controlled model car as painting implement, which suggests that he is less interested in the individuality of the brushstroke than in time and the tools that serve to capture traces on the medium. The visible result, that is to say, is secondary to the idea of a recording of time and space.

Thanks to a generous gift by the artist’s widow, the museum was recently able to welcome significant pictures and objects by Prelog to its collection.