Tag: austria

Klaus Pinter

The Artwork of Klaus Pinter

Born in 1940 at Schärding, a major port city on the Inn River, Klaus Pinter is an Austrian sculptor. After graduation from Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts, he began his art career with a solo exhibition in the early 1960s at Vienna’s Ernest Fuchs Gallery which focused on work from the school of Fantastic Realism.

In 1967, Klaus Pinter, along with architects Laurids Ortner and Günter Zamp Kelp, founded the Haus-Rucker-Co group. These artists were joined by Laurids Ortner’s brother, architect and designer Manfred Ortner, in 1971. The Haus-Rucker group’s proposals alternated between architecture and performance art which was distinguished by its use of experimental materials and technologies. In 1970, studios were established in New York City and Düsseldorf; the two studios created projects independently starting in 1972 until Haus-Rucker-Co disbanded in 1992. 

Pinter played a role in Austria’s 1970s radical scene which criticized progress and industrialization for their effects on the environment. Combining his knowledge of historical architecture and engineering with aesthetic ideas, he created futuristic art installations that posed questions about the accepted ideas of space, symbols, and tradition. Architecture was extended beyond the actual building; it became a technological and utopian experience that modified the senses of its inhabitant.  

Klaus Pinter’s large pneumatic structures, composed of lightweight and translucent materials, were placed in urban spaces, both stationary and seemingly adrift. These sculptures altered the rigidity and stillness of the surrounding architectural spaces and placed the spectator as a fundamental piece of the art. Pinter’s 1969 “Balloon for Zwei” in Vienna and the 1972 “Oase Nr. 7” in Kassel were two pneumatic capsules, floating in the air, that questioned the uses given to public spaces.  

Pinter created “Rebounds” for his 2002 installation exhibition at Rome’s Pantheon, an extravagant Ancient Roman building whose rectangular vestibule leads to the rotunda with its coffered forty-two meter in diameter concrete dome. One pneumatic sphere of the installation was placed on the ground; another sphere was mounted so that it appeared to float in the church’s choir. The round reflective surface of the spheres made the building’s architectural elements appear distorted. Pinter’s choice of placing “Rebounds” at the Pantheon was a reference to Plato who also asked questions  about humanity’s relationship to the physical world. 

In 2018, Klaus Pinter installed “En Plein Midi”, a  large bamboo sphere covered with gold stars, at the Stables Canopy of Château de Chaumont-sur Loire, France. The installed sphere is now situated as part of the château’s historic gardens. From May to October in 2021, Klaus Pinter presented an exhibition of work at the historic Clerjotte Hotel and Ernest Cognacq Museum at Saomt-Martin-De-Ré. His “Take-Off” was situated in the hotel’s courtyard; an exhibition of thirty graphic works as well as a sample of his production method was presented in the upper rooms of the hotel.

After residing and working in New York, Belgrade, Paris and Bonn, Pinter now resides in Vienna and Île d’Oléron off the west coast of France. He continues to post experimental ideas every year for the Saltaire Arts Trail, a community arts event held annually in May in Saltaire, England.

Note: A short video on Klaus Pinter’s “En Plein Midi” can be found at the Château Chaumont website located at: https://domaine-chaumont.fr/en/centre-arts-and-nature/archives/2018-art-season/klaus-pinter

The Saltaire Arts Trail website can be located at: https://saltaireinspired.org.uk

Second Insert Image: Klaus Pinter, Haus-Rucker-Co Project, Palmtree Island (Oasis) Project, New York, New York Perspective, 1971

Bottom Insert Image: Klaus Pinter, “En Plein Midi”, 2018, Bamboo and Gold Stars, Installation, 6.2 Meters, Stable Canopy, Château Chaumont sur Loire, France

Alexander Rothaug

Alexander Rothaug, “The Death of Achilles”, Date Unknown, Brown Ink and Oil en Grisaille Over Traces of Black Chalk on Canvas, 218.8 x 163.8 cm, Private Collection

Born in 1870, Alexander Rothaug was an Austrian painter, stage designer, and illustrator. He was active in Munich and his native Vienna during the end of the nineteenth- century and the first half of the twentieth. After his initial painting lessons with his father, Rothaug took the position of apprentice in 1884 with sculptor Johann Schindler. 

Between 1885 and 1892, Alexander Rothaug received his training at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts primarily under Leopold Carl Müller, a painter who displayed his colorist talent to great advantage in Oriental subjects. At the academy, Rothaug also received lessons from genre and landscape painter Franz Rumpler and painter Christian Griepenkerl whose speciality was portraiture and allegorical work drawn from classical mythology. For his academic work, Rothaug was awarded the Lampi Prize in 1888, the Golden Füger Medal in 1889 and, for work during Müller’s historical painting school, the 1890 Special School Award.

After graduation, Rothaug relocated to Munich where he attended its Academy of Fine Arts. He took a position for several years as an illustrator for the satirical journal Fliegende Blätter (Flying Leafs). In 1896, Rothaug married Ottilie Lauterkorn and, a year later, returned to Vienna as a freelance painter. Based on his experience as a stage painter, Rothaug created monumental paintings for theater buildings, ceiling paintings, and a series of large wall-mounted paintings, scenes from Wagner’s “Ring Cycle”, for the Grand Hotel de l’Europe in the spa town of Bad Gastein, Salzburg.

Following a period of study trips to Dalmatia, Bosnia, Spain, Italy and Germany, Alexander Rothaug returned Vienna and became a member of the Vienna Künstlerhaus, an association representing Viennese painters, sculptors and architects. In 1911, an extensive article on Alexander Rothaug and his work was published in the journal Art Revue; two years later, he received the Drasche Award. Alexander Rothaug died in Vienna in 1946. 

Rothaug had a lifelong interest in the depiction of ancient Roman, Greek, Germanic and Norse mythologies. His work blended the Classicism of Vienna’s Academic School with elements of Jugendstil, the German counterpart of Art Nouveau, and the mystic and nostalgic Symbolism of Franz von Stuck, a co-founder of the Munich Secession whose subject matter was primarily drawn from mythology. 

As it is not signed, “The Death of Achilles” could be a preparatory work for a commissioned monumental painting. As the underdrawing can be seen in some areas, Rothaug was likely still working out the specifics of the composition. “The Death of Achilles” may have been part of a larger cycle of images, one either depicting the life of Achilles or events from the Trojan War. Rothaug paid particular attention in all of his works to the complex, carefully detailed musculature of the figures; he had previously published a treatise on the depiction of the human body titled “Statics and Dynamics of the Human Body” in 1933.

Note: In April of 2017, the online Renegade Tribune posted an article written by J. Belenger, entitled “The Mythological Art of Alexander Rothaug”, which contains a biography and fifty images of Rothaug’s work. This article can be found at: http://www.renegadetribune.com/mythological-art-alexander-rothaug/

Top Insert Image: Alexander Rothaug, “The Grim Garden”, 1930, Oil on Canvas

Second Insert Image: Alexander Rothaug, “Apollo Sending Out the Plague of Arrows”, circa 1920, Oil on Canvas, 185 x 236 cm, Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Bottom Insert Image: Alexander Rothaug, “Samson’s Revenge”, 1928, Oil on Canvas, Private Collection

Franz von Stillfried-Ratenicz

Franz von Stillfried-Ratenicz, “Japanese Samurai Warrior”, 1881, Hand-Colored

Baron Raimund Anton Alois Maria von Stillfried-Ratenicz was born in Austria in 1839 and spent his childhood in military outposts on the fringes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1864, aged 24, he chose life as a cabin boy in a ship headed for Peru instead of an aristocratic military career.

By 1868, after a couple of years adventuring in Mexico, fighting a doomed campaign for the Habsburg Emperor, Stillfried-Ratenicz had set up a photography studio in Yokohama, Japan. A 19th-century pioneer of photography in Yokohama, he was the first in Japan to recognize the new medium’s potential as a global marketing tool. Adept at producing theatrical souvenir photos, Stillfried also took the first ever photograph of Emperor Meiji.

Peter Diamond

The Illustrations of Peter Diamond

Peter Diamond is a Canadian illustrator based in Vienna, Austria. born in Oxford, England, He received his BFA in Fine Arts at NSCAD University located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In addition to his freelance work, Diamond teaches drawing at Illuskills and works with the international illustration community through the European Illustrators Forum. He is represented internationally by The Loud Cloud.

Peter Diamond’s work owes much of its character to the album covers and self-published comics that were his special focus in art school and the early years after graduation, as well as the punk gig posters of his teenage years.

Richard Gerstl

Richard Gerstl, “Semi-Nude Self-Portrait”, 1902-1904, Oil on Canvas, 43 x 63 Inches Leopald Museum, Vienna

Among such notables as Egon Schiele, Max Oppenheimer and Osker Kokoschka, Richard Gerstl was one of the leading Expressionist painters in Vienna at the turn of the twentieth-century. He was a leading innovator of the Austrian avant-garde who participated in the change from a Neo-impressionist technique to a portraiture style of deliberately heightened colors.

Early in his life, Gerstl decided to become an artist, much to the dismay of his father. After performing poorly in school and being forced to leave the famed Piaristengymnasium in Vienna as a result of disciplinary difficulties, his financially stable parents provided him with private tutors. In 1898, at the age of fifteen, Gerstl was accepted into the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he studied under the notoriously opinionated and difficult Christian Griepenkert. Gerstl began to reject the style of the Vienna Succession movement and what he felt was pretentious art.

A passionate music lover, Gerstl painted portraits of many of the leading figures in Vienna’s musical arts including composers Alexander Zeminsky and Arnold Schoenberg. He was known for his expressive psychologically insightful portraits, and his lack of critical acclaim during his lifetime. Gerstl’s highly stylized heads anticipated German Expressionism and his use of pastels  emulated the works by Oskar Kokoschka, another Expressionist painter.

Gerstl, distraught over the ending of an affair with Mathilde Schoenberg, entered his studio during the night of November 4, 1908, burned every letter and piece of paper he could find. It is believed that a great deal of his artwork and personal papers were destroyed. After burning his papers, Geerstl hanged himself in front of the studio mirror and somehow managed to stab himself as well.

After his suicide at the age of twenty-five, his family took the surviving paintings to art dealer Otto Kallir, who organized a posthumous show of Gerstl’s work at Neue Galerie. The Nazi prescence in Austria hindered further acclaim of Gerstl; it was only after the wr that Gerstl became known in the United States. Only sixty-six paintings and eight drawings attributed to Gerstl are known.

Top Insert Image: Richard Gerstl, “15 September”, Self Portrait, Pencil and Charcoal on Paper, 40 x 29.9 cm, Wien Museum, Austria

Bottom Insert Image: Richard Gerstl, “Beach”, Date Unknown, Oil on Cardboard, 43.5 x 33 cm, Private Collection

La Rochelle Band, “Jay Jay”

La Rochelle Band, “Jay Jay”, 2015, from the Album Wonderland

La Rochelle Band is an electro-soul band from Austria. It was formed in 2011 by Austrian music producer Peter Cruseder aka Peter Kreuzer. Kreuzer studied classic and jazz piano as well as song composition at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz. The multi-talent was awarded the Austrian newcomer award in 2010. In 2013 he had the honour of producing the music for the voestalpine Klangwolke alongside Parov Stelar.

La Rochelle Band released their debut album “Shake Late” in 2012 on Kreuzer’s own label Peter Cruseder Records. The band signed to Etage Noir Recordings in the same year, and have since released the “Work That Body” EP, the single “Burning in My Soul” and the “Good Time Tonight” EP on the label. Peter Cruseder composes and produces all of the songs himself. On stage Kreuzer is responsible for electronics and keyboards and is joined by drummer Florian Kasper and singer Ricarda Maria.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Ernst Fuchs

Ernst Fuchs, “Transfiguration of the Resurrected”, Egg Tempera, 1961-82

Ernst Fuchs was born in 1930 in Vienna. He has produced many hundreds of paintings, recorded music, designed architecture and is a co-founder of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism. He brilliantly displays the visionary vistas of the human imagination with surreal themes and spiritual symbolism.

Ernest Fuchs teaches and paints using a painting technique known as Mischtechnik. Mischtechnik utilizes small amounts of paint applied with glazes using egg tempera. This application of paint can be seen in the works of the Flemish masters of old. The thin layers of pigment are separated by the transparent glazes creating depth and vivid colors which are ideal for the visionary realms of fantastic art.

Fuchs utilizes this traditional technique for painting and through it feels a connection with the master painters of old. As though by studying proven techniques of the past he is carrying on the lineage of that painting tradition and carrying with him the lexicon of master painters.

Ernest Haas

Photographs by Ernst Haas

Ernst Haas (March 2, 1921 – September 12, 1986) was a photojournalist and a pioneering color photographer. During his 40-year career, the Austrian-born artist bridged the gap between photojournalism and the use of photography as a medium for expression and creativity. In addition to his prolific coverage of events around the globe after World War II, Haas was an early innovator in color photography.

His images were widely disseminated by magazines like Life and Vogue and, in 1962, were the subject of the first single-artist exhibition of color photography at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. He served as president of the cooperative Magnum Photos, and his book The Creation (1971) was one of the most successful photography books ever, selling 350,000 copies.

Many thanks to http://canadianbeerandpostmodernism.tumblr.com as the source of the “Frigidaire” photo (Paris 1954) and for reminding me what a great photographer Ernst Haas was. The second image is a self-portrait of Ernst Haas taken in 1945.

Christian Schloe

Digital Artwork by Christian Schloe

These surreal scenes by Christian Schloe feature bizarre moments that draw viewers out of a concrete reality and into a dreamy, fictional world. In his work, the digital artist creates expressive visual stories filled with soft color palettes, elegant birds and butterflies, soft flower petals, and otherworldly, majestic landscapes. The illusion of a scratched canvas and worn, aged edges allude to a different time and place where a howling wolf is half human, half animal; a couple dances among the clouds; and a young girl collects drops of moonlight in a bowl.

Each beautifully designed composition is a whimsical fantasy concocted by the talented artist. Schloe playfully blends realistic elements with perplexing, conceptual ideas. In doing so, he creates the illusion of serenity within a strange and confusing composition. Though he may have significant meaning behind his work, the artist leaves no clues to an explanation. Viewers are left to venture out on our own journey, interpreting the intriguing illustrations with endless possibilities to the narratives that we might dream up.