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1929 - Vienna - 2008
- Title
- „Bananenblüte mit Malpappe“ („Banana Blossom with Paperboard“) (Maspalomas)
- Time
- 2007
- signed
- lower left "M 2-7"
- Technique
- oil on canvas
- Measurements
- 31½×23½ in
Alongside the human figure, floral motifs were among the favorite subjects of the great Austrian painter Josef Mikl. Of these, the exotic banana blossom with its slender, stringy, almost anthropomorphic form occupies a special position and repeatedly became the creative starting point for Mikl’s powerful, color-intensive paintings.
The original artist’s label on the back of the present painting indicates the place where the artist was able to admire the exotic blossom: Maspalomas, a picturesque village situated on the coastal dunes on the Canary Island of Gran Canaria. The tropical climate of the archipelago offers ideal conditions for the sweet tropical fruit, giving Josef Mikl numerous opportunities to experience banana trees in full bloom.
Josef Mikl is considered one of the most important pioneers of abstraction in Austria but always saw himself as a painter of figurative motifs, which he translated into his colorful pictorial language with impulsive brushstrokes. He described his creative process based on the world of the representational as follows: “What you see, what you have seen, cannot be completely forgotten. That is why there are no imaginary, no truly non-objective pictures. An object is what makes the picture meaningful.”