Muntean and Rosenblum

Muntean/Rosenblum is a collaborative artist duo composed of Markus Muntean (born 1962 in Graz, Austria) and Adi Rosenblum (born 1962 in Haifa, Israel). They have been collaborating since 1992.

Background
Adi Rosenblum and Markus Muntean met each other as students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria. In 1992 they sublimated their subjective singularity into a double act, into a third person: Mutean/Rosenblum. In 1995 they founded Bricks & Kicks (1995 to 1998), one of the first Artist-Run galleries in Vienna. They were professors for Contextual Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna from 1999 to 2005 and received the nationally prestigious City of Vienna Prize for Visual Arts in 2001.

Work
In the compositions of their drawings, the artist couple Markus Muntean and Adi Rosenblum use methods of sampling and resampling of subjects from art history and present-day popular culture. The starting point is an intensive confrontation with the pathos formulas of art history and the questioning of how emotions that find expression as a result are articulated and interpreted in different eras. Motifs that we know from Passion cycles are applied to the psychological dispositions of contemporary existence, sometimes as the expression of an apathy that appeals to the empathy of the beholder. Historically overwhelming pictorial subjects are transferred into the present day, while at the same time triggering a discussion of the media conditions in which pictures are produced today. As a result of the use of language and lettering, a further plane penetrates into the drawings of Muntean and Rosenblum and gives insights into the complexity of the challenges which a subtle medium such as drawing has to face up to today. In the process, Muntean and Rosenblum also take an interest in the aspect of the nomadic narrative. The text collages form, in their relationship with the scenic compositions, aphorisms which pointedly contradict phrases of popular culture, and, through their paradoxical link with figural representations, awaken a dual consciousness.

Collections

 * MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, New York
 * Zabludowicz Collection, London, New York
 * Susan and Michael Hort, New York
 * Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection, Miami
 * Rubell Family Collection, Miami
 * Dicke Collection, Ohio
 * The Progressive Art Collection, Ohio
 * Burger Collection, Hong Kong
 * Belvedere 21er Haus, Vienna, Austria
 * Albertina, Vienna, Austria
 * EVN Collection, Austria
 * Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna (MAK), Vienna, Austria
 * MUMOK, Museum of Modern Art Foundation Ludwig Vienna, Vienna
 * Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg, Austria
 * Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Austria
 * Neue Galeri, Graz, Austria
 * Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien|Sammlung BA-CA, Vienna
 * Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, Germany
 * Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany
 * DekaBank Collection, Frankfurt, Germany
 * Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
 * Advaney Collection, The Hague, Netherlands
 * MOCAK, Museum of Contemporary Art Krakau, Poland
 * Ellipse Foundation, Alcoitčo, Portugal
 * MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemoráneo de Castilla y Léon, Léon, Spain


 * ARCO Foundation, Madrid, Spain
 * Coleccion Inelcom Arte Contemporaneo, Madrid, Spain
 * VAC - Colección Valencia Arte Contemporánea, Valencia, Spain
 * Swiss Re Collection, Zurich, Switzerland

Bibliography (selected)

 * Klaus Albrecht Schröder, Elsy Lahner, Albertina Wien (Hgs.): Drawing Now, Hirmer Verlag, Wien/München 2015, ISBN 978-3-7774-2408-8
 * Karl-Josef Pazzini (Hg.): Bildung vor Bildern: Kunst - Pädagogik - Psychoanalyse (Theorie Bilden), transcript 2015, ISBN 3837632776
 * Fernando Huici, Gestión Cultural y Comunicación, S.L (Hgs.): Muntean/Rosenblum, The Management of Insignificance, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Málaga 2013, ISBN 978-84-939376-8-3
 * Essl Museum (Hg.), Muntean/Rosenblum: Between What Was and What Might Be, Essl Museum 2008, ISBN 978-3-902001-46-7
 * Arndt & Partner Berlin/Zurich (Hg.): Muntean/Rosenblum, Kerber Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-86678-167-2
 * Ulf Meyer (Hg.): Double Act. Künstlerpaare, Prestel Verlag, München/Berlin/London/New York 2007, ISBN 978-3791338477
 * JRP Editions (Hg.): Markus Muntean /Adi Rosenblum – Make Death Listen, JRP Ringier Kunstverlag 2006, ISBN 978-3-905701-99-9
 * De Appel, Adam Szymczyk (Hgs.): Muntean/Rosenblum – To Die For, De Appel Centre for Contemporary Art, Amsterdam 2002, ISBN 9789073501577
 * Uta Grosenick, Burkhard Riemschneider (Hgs.): Art now, Taschen Verlag 2002, p. 316–319, ISBN 3-8228-1444-X
 * Thomas Trummer (Hg.): Das Neue, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Wien 2002
 * Lóránd Hegyi (Hg.): Aspekte/Positionen: 50 Jahre Kunst in Mitteleuropa 1949–99, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Wien 1999, ISBN 3900776849
 * Secession (Hg.): Muntean/Rosenblum, Secession, Wien 2001, ISBN 3-901926-20-8
 * Peter Weiermair, Andreas Hapkemeyer (Hgs.): Figuration, Ursula-Blickle-Stiftung 1999, p. 66–69, 96, 107, ISBN 3-905597-09-8