Untitled c.1985
bicycle, acrylic paint, mixed media
Private Collection, New Zealand

A native of Innsbruck, Jann Pilka trained as a photographer at the Holl Art Institute, Munich before exploring installation works and sculpture in the early 1960s. He is best known for his "neutral landscape" constructions catalogued at the end of that decade which include Swell Dip (1968) and Diver (1969). Pilka travelled to Auckland in the 1980s on an artist exchange programme and completed several minor works here around 1985. All these works were specifically titled Untitled, as opposed to simply being untitled works, to the continued annoyance of researchers and publications managers in galleries all over the world. The gesture has been interpreted as a reference to the wordlessness of his oeuvres.