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1929 - Vienna - 2008
- Title
- „Figuren (Gogol)“ („Figures (Gogol)“)
- Time
- 2002
- signed
- lower left: "M 2-2" (2002)
- Technique
- oil on canvas
- Measurements
- 31½×39¼ in
Around the year 2000, the famous Austrian artist Josef Mikl created a series of paintings inspired by the satirical stories of the important Russian writer Nikolai Gogol. During his artistic exploration of these classics of world literature, Mikl immersed himself in individual figures and scenes and used them as creative impulses for abstract, gestural paintings with format-bursting motifs.
Nikolai Gogol, born in the Ukraine in 1809 and died in Moscow in 1852, is one of the most famous authors in Russian literary history. A master of the grotesque and satire, he was one of Josef Mikl’s favorite writers. Literature was an important source of inspiration throughout Mikl’s career, including for his most important commission – the ceiling painting and 22 murals in the Redoutensaal of the Vienna Hofburg, through which the painter created a monument to the great Austrian authors Karl Kraus, Ferdinand Raimund, Johann Nestroy and Elias Canetti.
In the present work, the color fields recede into the background and the graphic, almost calligraphic brushstroke dominates. The dynamic composition has an airy lightness and gestural impulsiveness. A handwritten note on the reverse of the work by Josef Mikl not only gives the title and year of creation of the painting, but also contains a dedication to the artist’s daughter, Anna, which can be also found in the signature on the front.