The Prototypes are a legendary group of works by Walter Pichler (1936 Deutschnofen, IT–2012 Vienna, AT), which he created in the 1960s and which were shown publicly for the first time in thirty years in this Generali Foundation exhibition. These works, which are located at the interface of architecture, design and sculpture and were created against the backdrop of the social and technical innovations of the 1960s, put Pichler on the international map as artist/designer. In 1967, the prototypes were first shown at the Galerie im Taxispalais in Innsbruck and the Galerie nächst St. Stephan in Vienna, and just one year later at Documenta 4 in Kassel. International media such as Domus, Architecture d’aujourd’hui and the innovative Austrian architecture magazine Bau published articles about this group of works at the time.

Pichler was using at that time new materials, such as acrylic glass, aluminum, and polyester as well as pneumatic elements made of PVC and even audiovisual components. With the chosen designation, he emphasized the laboratory character of the works, which were handmade by him, but as ‘prototypes’ imply a mechanical series production. In individual sculptures, such as the TV Helmet, also known as The Portable Living Room, the Small Room (Prototype 4) or the Telephone Set, he demonstrated his view of the then new media such as television or telecommunications in the form of ‘isolation cells’ or as monumentalized design objects. The early use of inflatable constructions once again reveals Pichler’s unmistakable language, who understood skin and clothing as generic forms of architecture. Equally significant in the individual Prototypes is that they evoke a potential use of the sculptures, as reflected in numerous photographs from the time of their creation, which show Pichler and his contemporaries interacting with them.

After his success in an increasingly busy art field, Pichler retrieved to his house in Sankt Martin in Burgenland, east of Vienna, in the mid-1970s. From then on, he turned to his artistic origins as a sculptor and concentrated on creating buildings for his sculptures on his property. He subsequently viewed his prototypes with skepticism. Pichler was persuaded to revise this group of works. The majority of them were carefully restored in collaboration with the artist. In the course of the research work, an archive was built up, which is accessible in the Generali Foundation Study Center, and numerous works were acquired for the Generali Foundation collection.