Biography 1949-2007
1949
Born June 29th in Leopoldsdorf/Lower Austria.
1955
The family moves to Munich. The father is a film journalist. Together with his mother, the child often visits museums and exhibitions. The mother remembers making a lot of notes at the child's request.
1961
First phase of painting activity producing oil paintings. The twelve-year-old wants to be a painter. He is mainly fascinated with Kandinsky, Monet and Turner. As a result of his father's occupation, his family changes places of residence several times, moving first to Amsterdam, then to Berlin, Vienna and back to Munich.
1962-68
He attends a private arts school in Munich.
1964
Return to Vienna. He starts playing with a band.
1968
Finishes grammar school and tours as a musician.
1969
Takes up studies at the Vienna academy of fine arts.
1971
First trip to Stockholm. Starts keeping a diary with topics influenced by Franz Kafka and Thomas Bernhard. Makes etchings such as Die Baumgrenze (the tree line) and Gustav Mahler. Deals intensely with theories of colour and contemporary art. Studies together with Werkner, Anzinger, Schmalix and Rochas, and meets Klinkan.
1972/1973
Makes first major Weltbild etchings, such as Noah Triptych, die Kinderspiele (children's games) and der Hauseinsturz (the collapse of a house).
1974
First exhibition tours to New York, Cologne and Switzerland.
1975
Extensive travelling mostly in connection with exhibitions in Paris, Stockholm and again New York, where he witnesses Francis Bacon's great retrospective in the Metropolitan Museum.
1976
Upon return, single-artist exhibition at the Graphische Sammlung Albertina in Vienna. Concludes studies at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.
Scheidl becomes one of the founding members of the Ariadne II art gallery in Vienna, where the core group of artists meet who were to be called the young wild ones much later.
Spends some time in Paris.
1978/1979
Returns to Vienna. Contributes to Falter, the new Vienna city newspaper.
First stays of substantial duration in Switzerland.
Meets with Swiss dancer and choreographer Bettina Nisoli.
She will be his companion until her death in 1996.
1980
Weltbild exhibition in Stockholm. Large-format pen-and-ink drawings showing a loosely flowing script.
For the time being, colour remains confined to oil paintings and gouache works. Some reference to East Asian ways of thinking. Realises ideas that were sketched out in travelling and other diaries years ago.
Shows interest in the trends prevailing in new Italian and German painting. Several trips to Cologne, Amsterdam, Paris, Basle and Zurich.
Visits Alfred Klinkan in Antwerp.
1981
1st prize at the Triennale of Sentinella, staying for some time on an island in the lagoon of Aquileia. Makes pen-and-ink drawings.
Takes part in the first Austrian exhibition of paintings of younger-generation artists at the Joanneum of Graz, called New Austrian Painting I.
1982
Several long stays in Switzerland. Sets up a studio in Zurich. Light design and engineering work for various experimental dance performances by Bettina Nisoli.
The influence of rhythm and dance begins to bear on the realm of paintings.
Establishes the Fly Agaric Museum and Fly Agaric Press.
As an artist, Scheidl acquires the knowledge of the effects of colours. This is the beginning of a long journey from the north to the south of art.
1983
Spends the year in Switzerland, where he gets acquainted with the ideas and archetypes of C.G. Jung by making use for his works of Jung's theory of synchronicity. At the same time, he copies Delacroix, Goya and Fragonard at Oskar-Reinhart-Sammlung in Winterthur. Meets Joseph Beuys in Harald Szeemann's exhibition Der Hang zum Gesamtkunstwerk in Zurich.
Meeting with Beuys, he is confirmed in his idea of therapeutic aesthetics for the future of art.
Makes blue purification paintings.
Participates in the second exhibition on New Austrian Painting at Neue Galerie in Linz, in the autumn. Not much later, exhibits 150 brush drawings at the Graphische Sammlung Albertina in Vienna under the title of Zwischen Weltberg und Sintflut (between the world mountain and the floods).
Develops Chinese Collage, a new print procedure combining watercolour paintings and black-and-white etchings, together with copperplate etcher Kurt Zein.
1984
First single-artist exhibition in Zurich. Stays in New York in the summer.
Produces Der tote Punkt (the deadlock), a 90-minute video tape of computer drawings upon return to Europe. Travels to Paris in the autumn. In Vienna, discovers the Ro-Pi effect together with Bettina Nisoli, and seeks to obtain a patent on it. This effect is a procedure of viewing a picture that induces an impression of pictures in motion. It has a substantial impact on his painting.
1985
Together with Bernhard Bürgi, he makes a presentation of major works on paper at Kunsthalle Waaghaus in Winterthur. The compositions demonstrate an ever increasing significance of the themes of rhythm and dance. A stay in the Ticino inspires him to make his first paintings of landscape, which will become an almost regular motif from now on.
1986
Writing an article on Harald Szeemann's exhibition of sculptures entitled Spuren, Skulpturen und Momente ihrer präzisen Reise at Kunsthaus Zurich, Scheidl launches a series of reports on exhibitions on behalf of Parnass, an Austrian arts magazine.
The first Five Freedoms come into being.
Scheidl's imagination is caught by the coincidental aesthetics of the palettes. Together with Bettina Nisoli and her dance company, he develops live light drawing on stage.
Various tours of Europe.
1987
First major theme exhibition at Frauenbad, Baden/Vienna: Zwölf Räume (twelve rooms). Abstract palettes and narrative themes juxtaposed as equivalent items.
1988/1989
His work is dominated by source and dance paintings.
Der Traum des Teilchens (the dream of a particle) arises.
1990
TAMAMU (German acronym for Dance, Painting and Music), an association for the promotion of multi-media art on stage, is established.
1992
Kunsthaus Zurich adds the Buser series of drawings (1981-1991) to its collection. Scheidl develops the TE-RO and TAMAMU ceramic collections (together with Winterthur-based ceramist Felix Vogler).
Paris becomes important. Scheidl starts to study French painting.
Publishes Frauen von Paris (Parisian women) and Kunst und Mode (art and fashion).
1993
Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz shows a comprehensive retrospective of drawings from the last ten years. Scheidl makes 64 I-Ging drawings.
1994
Lives in Paris and Zurich, together with Bettina Nisoli. Makes Paris Danse, a case of lithographies. Draws the live stage set for Tanzende Objekte (dancing objects) at Kunstmuseum Winterthur.
1995
Starts with the twin paintings and the four elements.
Last major performance tour of Zurich and Paris. Exhibits travel diaries in Zurich.
1996
Bettina Nisoli dies in Vienna. Scheidl adopts the Sonnenhof studio.
Tries to continue performing with the TAMAMU company.
In painting, confines himself to picking up old themes.
1997
Meets biologist and beetle painter Katharina Puschnig. Start of co-operation between artists. Joint paintings, new performances (the dream of the particle, tea in the Sahara) are made.
Fire in the Vienna studio. Then, underwater paintings and Das Boot (the boat).
Makes Fliegende Blätter (flying leaves), a suite of etchings, at Kurt Zein's studio.
At Virgilkapelle of Vienna, Scheidl and the TAMAMU company perform Der tanzende Pinsel (the dancing brush).
1998
Kunsthalle Krems exhibits the flying leaves cycle.
Travels to Amsterdam, Zurich, Paris and Hong Kong.
Produces the video Der tanzende Pinsel (the dancing brush – performances of the last two years), together with camerman Raphael Barth.
In painting, the main theme is Palette Pictures and Pictures of Phoenix.
1999
Exhibits at the State Hall in Vienna's national library, together with painter Turi Werkner. The exhibition called BUCHZEIT (a time for books) includes 300 travel diaries, artist's books and various other books by Scheidl and Werkner.
At the same time, new TAMAMU performance evenings with friends and guests from home and abroad (live light drawing).
Trip to Rome: studies El Greco and Caravaggio.
In painting, it's time to reap the fruits. New Freedoms come into being.
2000
Exhibition FIVE FREEDOMS at Gallery Futura, Sweden
2001
Travels to Abu-Dhabi and Marrakesh
2002
Film The Dancing Brush by Martin Adel for ORF BR-alpha Galerie Welz, Salzburg; Haus der Kunst, Graz
2003
First major trip to Japan featuring an exhibition in Tokyo and the TAMAMU
performance-art series
Austria Documentation Center for Modern Art,
St. Pölten; Galerie 3, Klagenfurt; Galerie Contact, Wien
2004
Opening exhibition at new Gallery Futura of
Eva Livijn-Olin, Stockholm;
Production of twelve TV films for the ORF BR-alpha
station in co-operation with Katharina Puschnig and
cameraman Gerald Frey with texts from a radio programme by Axel Corti
TAMAMU-café at Museum Lentos, Linz and
Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Vienna;
Exhibitions: Salzburg, Graz, Zurich,
Gallery Futura, Stockholm
2005
Eight-week tour of Japan with the TAMAMU Ensemble and Japanese artists;
Appearances at the Aichi Expo 2005;
Performances and exhibitions at Keio University Tokyo and cities of Tsukuba, Noda, Nango and Hachinoe;
Ten further drawing films for ORF BR-alpha in
co-operation with Katharina Puschnig and Gerald Frey
2006
Performance at the SOLYSOMBRA-art festival;
PAINTINGS OF THE POET, Galerie Welz, Salzburg;
Twelve drawn films for ORF BR-alpha
2007
WORLD VIEWS, drawings at Kubinhaus Zwickledt
TAMAMU Café II at ORF RadioKulturhaus Vienna;
Ten drawn films for ORF BR-alpha