Figural Studies 

Curator: Peter Fendi’s "Figural Studies" presents us with a medley of portraits, each seeming to exist in its own quiet little world. It’s currently residing at the Belvedere here in Vienna. What strikes you about it? Editor: The raw, tender vulnerability. There’s a domestic intimacy, perhaps of childhood itself, framed against this subtle yet ever-present exploration of societal constraints, of identities yet to be fully shaped. Curator: Ah, yes! It's a delicious jumble of pastel, charcoal, maybe even a dash of oil paint all on paper... It gives it this wonderfully unfinished, dreamlike quality, doesn’t it? As if Fendi caught these figures in fleeting moments. Editor: Exactly. It feels like a poignant commentary on representation—how we, as subjects, are both seen and unseen. Fendi uses these traditional forms – portraiture – and then gently pushes them beyond. Curator: And the way he captures their expressions... that watchful little one in the yellow jacket and the other child peering with pursed lips – what story does he intend for the viewer? Editor: Maybe the very question of intention is the point. Art in Fendi’s time had a very different purpose than that which is being asked here; how much of Fendi's experience and position affected these drawings? The lack of concrete details becomes a mirror. Curator: I get that—but that the people of that time still sought connection. Even across such a large time and culture chasm. So, maybe, we *are* looking at it exactly the way we are supposed to be? I bet old Peter would chuckle if he could hear us debating! Editor: Perhaps. And, that chuckle probably is itself, open to even further debate. "Figural Studies", far more than merely beautiful, seems also a radical, early study on personhood. Curator: Precisely. A meditation on being, seeing, and the sheer beautiful messiness of existing. I quite fancy that interpretation. Editor: Indeed, the echo of these studies reverberates into contemporary discourse—questioning our assumptions of identity in every fleeting glimpse.