Roland Hagenberg

Roland Hagenberg (b. 1955 in Radkersburg) is an Austrian author, artist and photographer.

He founded Pelham Press in 1985 to publish art guides and catalogues.

This work introduced him to art critic Robert Pincus-Witten and to artists such as Jeff Koons, Louise Bourgeois, Francesco Clemente, George Segal, Dorothea Tanning and Robert Mapplethorpe.

He later worked on book projects with Mark Kostabi, Karel Appel, Karl A. Meyer and Alexander Rutsch.

Together with the Russian artist Mihail Chemiakin, he founded the magazine Art of Russia and the West.

Roland's photographs of Jean-Michel Basquiat at work in his studio became iconic images that can be seen in international exhibitions, books and films.

The book Crosby Street about Hagenberg's time in New York and his collaboration with the Swiss artist Karl A. Meyer were published by Art In Flow Verlag Berlin in 2022.

In New York, Shigeko Kubota awakens Hagenberg's interest in Japanese culture.

His new focus on contemporary Japanese architecture shifts the center of his life to Japan.

As a freelance contributor to Vogue and Architectural Digest he introduced many architects in Europe who later received international recognition, including Kengo Kuma, Toyo Ito, Kazuyo Sejima and Jun Aoki.

Roland Hagenberg produces exhibitions and video documentaries.

He wrote books that also present the older generation of architects such as Tadao Ando, Kisho Kurokawa, Arata Isozaki and Kenzo Tange.

At the same time, he also portrayed personalities from the fields of film, fashion and art.

He has lived in Tokyo and Kyoto since 1993.

Roland Hagenberg grew up in Vienna.

Inspired by the writings of Carl Gustav Jung and Sigmund Freud, Hagenberg began working as a nurse in a psychiatric clinic, the Steinhof, designed by architect Otto Wagner. At this time, he published his first poems and texts in the literary magazine Freibord.

With the help of authors such as Friederike Mayröcker, Ernst Jandl, Elfriede Czurda and Robert Menasse, he founded the literary magazine Die Klinge together with Franz Krahberger.

After his compulsory service in the Austrian army, Hagenberg travelled through Europe and North Africa.

He then lived in Berlin as an author and photographer.

He published Wiener in Berlin, a book with photos and interviews with renowned authors and artists such as H. C. Artmann, Oswald Wiener, Dieter Roth and Elfriede Czurda.

While researching the book Maler in Berlin together with gallery owner Volker Diehl (with photos and texts by Hagenberg) he befriended the artists Martin Kippenberger, Jörg Immendorff, Markus Lüpertz, Georg Baselitz and neo-expressionist painters from the Junge Wilde group, Rainer Fetting, Bernd Zimmer and Helmut Middendorf.

In Berlin, he met Andy Warhol for the first time, whom he visited in New York for a magazine report, which lead to his move to Manhattan.

Hagenberg continued to write for German magazines like Stern and Berliner Kunstblatt at a time when the so-called East Village movement emerged.

In 2010, he initiated the Raiding Project in Raiding near Vienna, the birthplace of the composer Franz Liszt.

The award-winning Storkhouse guest house by Terunobu Fujimori and outdoor sculptures by Hiroshi Hara, Kengo Kuma and Karl A. Meyer were initiated and produced by Hagenberg.

The Silverhouse guest house - designed by Hagenberg - was completed in 2017.

In Kyoto, Hagenberg also works with traditional artists in the fields of ceramics, calligraphy and lacquerware.

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