Is Felix Haspel a sculptor? Is he a painter, a graphic artist? Indeed, he is all of these and more, having also taught art as a full professor for fifteen years at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He himself, however, refers to himself primarily as a textile artist. In this occupation, he is considered one of the most important figures of his generation, and dealing with fabrics, as well as researching historic weaving techniques and transferring them to the artistic present for his own work has been a major focal point of his own work, from his first studies at the University of Applied Art in Vienna up to his many years teaching at the Institute of Textile Design at the Vienna Academy. So it is no wonder that his fascination for textile surfaces is also a theme of Haspel’s sculptures. “Corsage” and “Support”, for instance, draw life as objects not least from the artistic confrontation of hard, metallic structures with the malleability of textile coverings. The contrast between the hardness of metal with the softness of textiles is also extremely expressive when cast in bronze – and thus embodied in an object that is per se hard, heavy, and massive.