in relation to, on the one hand, the context of artistic projects, and on the other, an increasing internationalization and globalization of Biennials, Documenta and the art market, did not merely provoke an expansion of this subject area in my art-historical work. These phenomena demand further engagement with Postcolonial Studies and an enduring paradigm change for the writing of art history and the discourses of contemporary art.

in addition to the Journals Kunst und Islam, 2004 , and Megaevents, 2017 , den Collected Volumes Global Art History, 2017 and East Central European Art Histories and Austria, 2024 as well as recently the Monography TWO CITIES, 2024 the following Articles and Essays are of special relevance:

«We Both Love this Piece Pięć so much.», 2024

An Ość in Your Throat and a Needle in the Hand. Monika Drożyńska’s Acute Embroidery, 2022

Contemporary Art Between «East» and «West». Signs ⋅ Images ⋅ Codes, 2019

Zeitgenössische Kunst zwischen ‹Ost› und ‹West›. Zeichen – Bilder – Codes, 2018

Kunstwissenschaft in globaler Perspektive, 2017

Was hat Kunst mit Migration zu tun?, 2014

Orientalismus – Primitivismus – Hybridisierung/Kreolisierung, 2008

the following Conferences and Lectures are to be mentioned:

LECTURE SERIES Global Art History 2015, 2017 and 2019

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Den Kunstbegriff gilt es auf Punktgröße zu verengen, 2003 and 2005

LECTURES and BOOK TALKS about TWO CITIES, seit 2024 (s. Comments, Reviews, Talks)

GALLERY TALK mit Irena Lagator Pejović in der Art Gallery Nadežda Petrović, Čačak, 2023

ARTIST TALK with Monika Drożyńska about her exhibition Dwa / Fünf, 2021

VORTRAG (gem. m. Karolina Majewska-Güde) Global oder Alter-Global. Zeitgenössische Kunstgeschichte aus Mittel- und Osteuropa, 2019

GUEST LECTURES Critical (Feminist) Art of the 1970s and 2000s in Poland mit Karolina Majewska-Güde und Teresa Fazan, 2019

BOOK TALK ‹Global Art History›. Transkulturelle Verortungen von Kunst und Kunstwissenschaft, 2018

LECTURE Kunstwissenschaft in globaler Perspektive, 2017

LECTURE Zeitgenössische Kunst zwischen ‹Ost› und ‹West›, 2015 and 2017

LECTURE Art Global. Kunstwissenschaft in interkultureller Perspektive, 2015

LECTURE Westliche Kunstgeschichtsschreibung und erste Ansätze eines globalen bzw. interkulturellen Blicks, 2015

LECTURE Elfriede Jelineks Kinder der Toten and Contemporary Art of the Islamic World, 2015

LECTURE Was hat Kunst mit Migration zu tun?, 2013

LECTURE Bilder der Anderen – Der Schleier, 2004 and frequently

LECTURES + WORKSHOPS Bilder der Anderen, 2003

Im Vorbeigehen is consistently staged in inter- and transcultural contexts:

Monika Drożyńska, Dwa / Fünf, 2021

Parastou Forouhar, 2020

Irena Lagator Pejović, for the C0mmon Good, 2019

Silvia Amancei und Bogdan Armanu, Sexy History Calendar, 2017

Esin Turan, Explosive Fortunes, 2016

Ulrike Ettinger, Cultural Displays, 2015

Sharman Entekhabi, Atlas Program, 2013

Iris Andraschek/Hubert Lobnig, Wohin verschwinden die Grenzen?, 2010

Monika Pichler, Zimmerreise, 2005

Isa Rosenberger, Sarajevo Guided Tours, 2001;

be it ‹stories of origins of art› like in antiquity; the ‹writing of vitas› in the Italian renaissance; the ‹art critique› of seventeenth and eighteenth century France; the nineteenth century narrative of ‹art history› that states an evolution of art; be it ‹artist’s texts› or ‹philosophical reflections›. ‹Aisthetic› in the sense of ‹aesthesis› marks a particular mode of reception as well as a form of sensual cognition. Yet, the term ‹Aesthetics› exists within the history of philosophy from the eighteenth century to today; it describes both the capacity of perception, and the meaning and relevance of art in general.

in an explicit manner: in the framework of Monographs in ZeichenSetzung I BildWahrnehmung, 2016 / Evoking a Sign I Perceiving an Image, 2021 (see Comments, Reviews, Talks), in the framework of Collected Volumes in n e x u s. Künstlerische Interventionen im Stadtraum, 1999; in Evidenz und Täuschung, 2008; in Was spricht das Bild?, 2011; in Ästhetische Kategorien, 2017; in ZEICH(N)EN. SETZEN., 2020 (see Comments, Reviews, Talks); and recently in Was sagt die Kunst?, 2022; in the framework of Aufsätzen und Artikeln in:

Die Zeitgenossenschaft des Schönen, 2022

Wie Bilder Relevanz gewinnen. Ein philosophischer Versuch, 2020

Generieren und Rezipieren von Zeichen, 2020

KUNST. I. Philosophie, 2019 [Lexikonsbeitrag]

Wenn Gegenwartskunst und die Theorie des Schönen aufeinandertreffen, 2017

Das Herz hat seine Gründe, die die Vernunft nicht kennt. Kunst im Auge Batailles, 2015

Kunst als Sprache der Religion, 2012

MännerBlicke – FrauenBlicke, 2012

«Wo viel Licht ist, ist starker Schatten. Reiz und Risiko des Projektiven», 2010

In Auseinandersetzung mit Marie-José Mondzain. L’image peut-elle tuer?, 2008

Fragen nach Bildern, 2008

Ikonoklasmus und Ikonoklasmen, 2008

‹La imagination es libre; el hombre no.› Luis Buñuel im Gespräch mit Jacques Derrida, 2006

«Den Kunstbegriff gilt es auf Punktgröße zu verengen.» Kunst als Raum der Kommunikation, 2002

Kanon, 2002

Die Kritik der Kunst, 1999

Die Wiederkehr der Bilder und die Freiheit des Betrachters, 1999

Diesseits der Grenze. Reflexionen zum Begriff des Erhabenen, 1996

‹Paragone›. Die Anerkennung der Erkenntisleistung von Kunst, 1989

questions of art theory and aesthetics are a principal focus of the following Conferences and Lectures:

COLLOQUIUM Ernst Cassirer & die Bildende Kunst, 2025

CONFERENCE «Hier ist es schön». Robert Musil und die Bildende Kunst, 2024

CONFERENCE Zeichen Setzen, 2017

LECTURE SERIES Ästhetische Kategorien, 2014

SYMPOSIUM Kunst_Wissenschaft_Theologie, 2013

SYMPOSIUM Was spricht das Bild?, 2011

LECTURE SERIES Muss Kunst schön sein?, 2008

LECTURE SERIES GlaubensBilder – BilderGlaube, 2007

SYMOPOSIUM n e x u s, 1998

LECTURE: Das Ornament als symbolische Form?, 2025

LECTURE «Hier ist es schön.» Robert Musil und die Bildende Kunst, 2024

BOOK TALK Lady Reaon and the Writing of History, 2023

LECTURE and BOOK PRESENTATION Evoking a Sign – Perceiving an Image, 2021

LECTURE Evoking a Sign | Perceiving an Image: Warburg/Panofsky – Imdahl/Boehm – and Afterwards, 2019

ALBERTINA TALK Keith Haring. The Alphabet_Klaus Albrecht Schröder (Direktor Albertina) im Gespräch mit Kunstwissenschaftlerin Monika Leisch-Kiesl, 2018

LECTURE le trait – le rétrait, 2014

LECTURE No se puede mirar / Man kann es nicht ansehen, 2014

LECTURE Wenn Gegenwartskunst und die Kategorie des Schönen aufeinandertreffen, 2014

LECTURE Das Herz hat seien Gründe, die die Vernunft nicht kennt, 2012

LECTURE MännerBlicke – FrauenBlicke, 2010

LECTURE waß abr dy schonheit sey, das weis ich nit, 2008

LECTURE Ikonoklasmus und Ikonoklasmen, 2007

LECTURE (K)ein Bild machen, 2006

LECTURE ‹La imaginacíon es libre; el hombre no.›, 2005

LECTURE Bild und Bilderverbot im Judentum und Christentum, 2003

LECTURE Kunst und Kommunikation, 2001

TALK Spielregeln der Kunst: Theorie, 1999

Moreover, questions of art theory are a main focus of my academic teaching in Kunsttheorie und Ästhetik I, Kunsttheorie und Ästhetik II and Kunsttheorie  und Ästhetik III.

but also form a focal point of my art historical and philosophical interests. My attention is directed towards the History and Theory of Drawing, in particular Modern and Contemporary Drawing. In the context of my study on Arnulf Rainer, I examined the drawing strategies of Alfred Kubin, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, and Joseph Beuys (published under the title Verbergen und Entdecken, 1996). About 20 years later, my questions about image theory between semiotics and phenomenology led me to the works of Marcel Duchamp, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Toba Khedoori und Katharina Hinsberg (published under the title ZeichenSetzung | BildWahrnehmung, 2016 (German) / Evoking a Sign | Perceiving an Image, 2021).

in addition to the Monographs on Arnulf Rainer 1996 and on Toba Khedoori 2016/engl. 2021 (see Comments, Reviews, Talks) as well as the volume ZEICH(N)EN. SETZEN., 2020 (see Comments, Reviews, Talks) the following Articles and Essays are of special relevance:

Generieren und Rezipieren von Zeichen. Einführung, 2020

Zettelwirtschaft, 2020

Die zwei Seiten einer Linie, 2019

le trait – le retrait, 2018

drawing was the main focus of the Conference Zeichen Setzen, 2016 as well as of several Lectures and Talks since 2014:

LECTURE ‹ Evoking a Sign ›. (Contemporary) Concepts of Drawing – connected with: an Aesthetic Approach to the Works of Toba Khedoori, 2022

LECTURE and BOOK PRESENTATION: Evoking a Sign – Perceiving an Image. Three Contemporary Ways of Drawing, 2021

BOOK TALK: ZEICH(N)EN. SETZEN., (Linz and Vienna), 2020

MATINEE: Fährten der Zeichnung, 2017

ALBERTINA TALK: Drawing Now, 2017

LECTURE and BOOK PRESENTATION: Die Improvisation der Zeichnung, 2016

LECTURE: le trait – le rétrait, 2014

drawing was the focus of the Exhibition wolfram zaunmüller, 2020 as well as of the presentations of Johannes Deutsch: Manfred, 2022 and Das verzauberte Haus, 2024. Besides, Im Vorbeigehen continually also showed artistic positions in the medium of drawing:

Parastou Forouhar, 2020

Thomas Fatzinek, 2017

Birgit Petri, 2016

Shahram Enthekhabi, 2013

Maria Bussmann, 2012

Regula Dettwiler, 2007

Harald Gsaller, 2007

Maja Vukoje, 2005

Lorenz Estermann, 2000

I gave as a (rather young) professor of art history and aesthetics. Besides studies on El Greco, Artemisia Gentileschi or Francisco de Goya, artistic positions of the twentieth and twenty-first century are at the heart of my interest. In chronological order, the following figures should be mentioned: Arnulf Rainer, Max Weiler, Michael Haneke, Johannes Deutsch, Leo Zogmayer, Luis Bunuel, Marcel Duchamp, Toba Khedoori, Marek Chlanda, Monika Drożyńska und Irena Lagator Pejović.

in addition to the Monographs on Arnulf Rainer 1996, on Ingmar Bergman und Luis Buñuel 2005, and on Toba Khedoori, 2016/2021, the following Articles and Essays are of special relevance:

Monika Drożyńska, 2022 and 2024

Fritz Riedl, 2023

Maria Lassnig und Arnulf Rainer, 2019

Francisco Goya, 2016

Marcel Duchamp, 2010 sowie im Rahmen der Monografie ZeichenSetzung, 2016

Luis Bunuel, 2006

Leo Zogmayer, 2000

Johannes Deutsch, 1997, 2005 and 2026

Michael Haneke, 1996 / 2005 / 2012

Max Weiler, 1995 and 2025

the dialogue with artists takes place predominantly through organizing visits to ateliers or by guided tours in exhibitions. In the field of Exhibitions the artist’s talks in the context of the exhibition series Im Vorbeigehen, Kunst an der KU Linz deserves to be mentioned; recently (2024) the exhibition Das verzauberte Haus presentd a dialogue between Robert Musil und Johannes Deutsch. Toba Khedoori took center stage in a number of Lectures and Talks during the years 2016 and 2017.

first occupied me in the early 1980s in relation to metaphorical language in biblical, mythological and poetic texts, and led, almost contemporaneously, to an engagement with the visual arts. Though my studies in Art History at Salzburg, Vienna and Munich were formerly dominated by formal analyses and iconography, by the early 1990s I discovered, not at least in the lectures of Hans Belting, an approach to pictures (of art) that I estimated to be fruitful for my own questioning and searching. The research of Gottfried Boehm brought me to Basel, where I examined the image archeology of Austrian artist Arnulf Rainer and confronted his procedures of redrawing and overpainting with Foucault’s archeology of knowledge. (Verbergen und Entdecken. Arnulf Rainer im Diskurs von Moderne und Postmoderne, Basel 1996, published under the same title with Passagen Wien in 1996). Image theory, as it was institutionally established with the founding of eikones (2005), further stimulated my research and teaching. At its heart are questions dealing with correspondences and relations between visual and verbal media and with the mediality of communication.

in addition to the Monographs on Arnulf Rainer (Verbergen und Entdecken, 1996) and to Ingmar Bergman und Luis Buñuel, 2005 and the Edited Volume + Special Edition ZEICH(N)EN. SETZEN, 2020 (see Comments, Reviews, Talks) the following Articles and Essays are of special relevance:

Generieren und Rezipieren von Zeichen, 2020

Contemporary Art Between «East» and «West». Signs ⋅ Images ⋅ Codes, 2019

Zeitgenössische Kunst zwischen ‹Ost› und ‹West›. Zeichen – Bilder – Codes, 2018

No se puede mirar, 2016

Was spricht das Bild?, 2011

Fragen nach Bildern, 2008

Symbol, 1997

the following Conferences and Lectures are to be mentioned:

CONFERENCE Ernst Cassirer & die Bildende Kunst, 2025

CONFERENCE Zeichen setzen, 2017 

CONFERENCE Was spricht das Bild?, 2011

LECTURE: «Hier ist es schön.» Robert Musil und die Bildende Kunst, 2024

BOOK PRESENTATION: Was sagt die Kunst?, 2022

WORKHOP: Können Zeichen Tanzen?, 2022

BOOK TALK: ZEICH(N)EN. SETZEN. (Linz und Vienna), 2020

LECTURE: Evoking a Sign | Perceiving an Image: Warburg/Panofsky – Imdahl/Boehm – and afterwards, 2019

ALBERTINA TALK: Keith Haring. The Alphabet, 2018

LECTURE: Zeitgenössische Kunst zwischen ‹Ost› und ‹West›. Zeichen · Bilder · Codes, 2017

LECTURE: Zeitgenössische Kunst zwischen ‹Ost› und ‹West›. Zeichen · Bilder · Codes, 2016

LECTURE No se puede mirar, 2014

LECTURE Ikonoklasmus und Ikonoklasmen, 2006

LECTURE Bild und Bilderverbot, 2003 und 2006

LECTURE Identifizierungs- und Verwandlungssuche, 1997

during my studies in Theology and manifested itself in academic theses such as my master-thesis ( Die Schutzmantelmadonna. Entstehung, Bedeutung und theologische Implikationen, Linz 1983 ) and my doctoral thesis ( Eva in Kunst und Theologie des Frühchristentums und Mittelalters. Zur Bedeutung ‹Evas› für die Anthropologie der Frau, Salzburg 1990, published under the title Eva als Andere, Böhlau: Köln/Wien 1992 ). This attitude also shaped the contemporaneous and following studies in Art History and Philosophy, especially in Munich. It led to networking with woman academics through societies or through individual dialogue. This developed perceptions and cognitions that further shaped and stimulated my research. What began as feminist critique expanded – caused both by an inner logic and an external critique in the context of cultural studies – to Gender Studies.

in addition to the Monographs Eva als Andere, 1992 , and Lady Reason and the Writing of History, 2021 (see Comments, Reviews, Talks), und in weiterer Folge TWO CITIES, 2024  (see Comments, Reviews, Talks) the following Articles and Essays , and Online Publications are of special relevance:

Das ästhetische Konzept des Le livre de la cité des dames Chistine de Pizans, 2024

El concepto estético de ‹Le livre de la cité des dames› de Christine de Pizan, 2023

An Ość in Your Throat and a Needle in the Hand. Monika Drożyńska’s Acute Embroidery, 2022

Jelinek_Religion und Geschlecht, 2016/17 [online]

Jelinek_Die Kinder der Toten, 2014 [online]

Kunst als Sprache der Religion, 2012

MännerBlicke – FrauenBlicke, 2012

Schleier, 2004

Bildhauerinnen, 1996

Körperbilder, 1996 und 1997

Hildegard von Bingen, 1993

in: Wörterbuch der Feministischen Theologie, (2)2002

in: Encyclopédie Philosophieque Universelle, 1992

questions dealing with gender were the central focus of Conferences, such as the Dreimonatskurs für Sozialethik, Wirtschaft und Politik der KSÖ (1985–1995), they marked international Lectures about the topic Woman and Relgion , most notably in the 1980s and 1990s (1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994), and sporadically in the 2000s (2001, 2009), concentrated also on an examination of the writing of Elfriede Jelinek (2015), and recently focused on Le livre de la cité des dames as well as further writings of Christine de Pizan (cf. Lady Reason and the Writing of History, 2021) and with TWO CITIES. An Aesthetic approach to Ethical Responsibility, 2024 built a bridge to contemporary art (see Comments, Reviews, Talks).

In the context of Exhibitions I place importance on a well-balanced presentation of male and female artists, as with the presentation augenstücke , a selection of art acquisitions I curated for the City of Linz (Nordico Linz, 1997–1998), and within the frame of n e x u s. Künstlerischen Interventionen im Stadtraum (European Cultural Month in Linz, 1998) or Im Vorbeigehen Kunst an der KU Linz.

during my art historical studies in Munich and became a research focus during the 1990s, which to this day has not lost its appeal. The leading questions concern the ‹(inter)relation of text and image in book art› and ‹artistic responses to literary texts›. The timeframe extends from the middle ages to the present; most of the projects are exemplary individual studies.

in addition to a monograph on Christine de Pizan's ‹Livre de la cité des dames› (Lady Reason and the Writing of History, 2021; see Comments, Reviews, Talks) and TWO CITIES, 2024 (see Comments, Reviews, Talks), the following essays and articles are of special relevance:

Das ästhetische Konzept des Livre de la cité des dames Chistine de Pizans, 2024

El concepto estético de ‹Le livre de la cité des dames› de Christine de Pizan, 2023

Francisco Goya, 2016

Max Weiler, 1995 und 2025

Hildegard von Bingen, 1993

the following Conferences and Lectures are to be mentioned:

CONFERENCE Wege des Schauens, 2010 and 2012

LECTURES, Book Presentations and Talks to TWO CITIES. An Aesthetic Approach to Ethical Responsibility, 2024, seit Nov. 2024 (s. Comments, Reviews, Talks)

LECTURE Hildegard von Bingen’s Liber Scivias (around 1150), 2024

LECTURES, Book Presentations and Talks to Lady Reason and the Writing of History, 2021, seit Dec. 2021 (see Comments, Reviews, Talks)

LECTURE Bilder der Seitenwunde Christi, 2009