Fritz Baumgartner

Die Benno Kirche - Benno Church

2001

Since Franz Ecker’s early death in 1999 his work has been newly appreciated, what is manifested in numerous exhibitions, catalogues and in the acclaimed film about the artist. He was extremely productive and left behind an almost unmanageable scope of works in various styles. Among them some of the top works that are unparalleled in recent Austrian art history and whose significance has not yet been adequately appreciated. After finishing his studies in 1966 in class of prof. Sergius Pauser and after receiving his two prizes, Franz Ecker moved back to Leonding where he developed his clear, abstract language of forms. Among his sources of inspiration are Cezanne and Picasso, as well as Martin Polasek who was one of his teachers. This led him to painting in a flat and abstract manner, which triggers a spatial experience through its exact color coordination and strict composition. The strongest period in his oeuvre is the time when his paintings are between figuration and abstraction. Only until around 1975 he additionally creates numerous watercolors, even though he restricts this medium to his more lyrical works. If Franz Ecker cannot be included in the avant-garde cannon of the 70’s, it is only because he witheld from presenting his works on the art market. Instead of using the opportunities that were offered to him in Vienna, he returned after his time at the academy to Linz where there was no appreciation nor market for his works. Distanced from the established art business, Ecker lives uncompromisingly the precarious life of a lonely genius. An artist myth, which in his case certainly is a bitter reality. Unimpressed by this, Ecker develops an increasingly broad language of forms within the clear line of abstract pictorial conception, which he emphasizes with constantly new forms of signature. At the end of the seventies his works became more gestural and expressive. His works like “Kafka” anticipate the “Neue Wilden”. When these are celebrated as the “return of painting...

Josef Winkler was born in 1925 and has studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in the classes of Prof. Josef Dobrowski and Prof. Herbert Boeckl an...

"Swing" is an oil painting with chalk and graphite on wood panel, and measures 16" high by 12" wide. It is finished with a clear resin across the surface, lending the artwork a particular warmth and liquidity that is rare and lovely to behold. Typical of the artist, the painting is a mystery despite its apparent simplicity – a girl or young lady on a swing...

This diptych Sunset Clouds , is part of Sunset Song Series, painted entirely en plein air under dimmed light in sunset hours, with no artificial light to guide her, Shizico Yi embrac...