I met Hans Viets and his wife Lauren Viets for Brunch in Park Slope last Sunday; I had been in communication with Hans Viets since earlier this year when I tried, unsuccessfully, to set up a meeting between Hans and Fred Storehouse while the Viets were living in Milwaukee.

I took a short video, above, of our lunch meeting (just to give you a flavor of what our meeting); it was nice meeting both of them.

Hans gave me a copy of his latest Artists’ Catalog which has some fantastic work in it.  I opened up the catalog and  was immediately struck by his Planet Plant painting and Figure 7, along with his engineering style drawings that remind me, sorta, of Leonardo.

One of the things that struck me about Hans Viets is his dedication to quality in his work, a need to put craft and time into it, to not overproduce it.

The Viets just moved back to New York and I was interested how much they’ve traveled, lived and was part of the art community in Germany and Milwaukee and Williamsburg Brooklyn (he worked with some well known artists, also at the Dia Art Foundation in the past).   I also showed Hans Brooklyn Artists Gym in case he was interested in a temporary studio space.

I’m looking forward to seeing the Viets again at some future Art Opening.  It’ll also be interesting to see how Hans Viets work changes now he’s back in New York.   I get the impression that life was slower in Milwaukee and gave, perhaps, more time to focus of work.   Having lived in the Midwest in the early / mid eighties (Minneapolis), I know that to be true (and the Midwest can be a lot colder in Winter than NYC).