Show all 2 images
1951 Tragwein/Upper Austria – 2003 Vienna
- Title
- untitled (1975)
- Time
- 1975
- signed
- lower left "Mairwöger 75"
- Technique
- oil on canvas
- Measurements
- 41 ¼×51 ¼ in
illustrated in: B. Mairwöger: Gottfried Mairwöger, Vienna n.d., p. 23.
This painting is one of the rare works from Gottfried Mairwöger’s early creative period in the 1970s that is especially sought after by collectors. It is therefore a particular pleasure to present this work to you as one of the key pieces of this formative phase.
In 1971, Gottfried Mairwöger began studying painting at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in the master class of Josef Mikl. In 1972, Wolfgang Hollegha took over the class and guided Mairwöger on his path toward Color Field painting. The materials, application of paint, and grounding of the present work were executed using the same technique practiced by Hollegha. The canvas is repeatedly sanded and primed; the oil paint is custom-mixed and heavily thinned; the pigments form sediment-like fields of color, which – together with the weave of the canvas – lend the painting texture and depth. In direct comparison, however, Mairwöger’s approach shows a deliberate reduction of the dynamic, gestural brushwork in favor of carefully balanced compositional fields of color, resulting in an almost meditative pictorial effect.
The present painting was the centerpiece of Mairwöger’s first solo exhibition (1975, Vienna). A photograph from the opening has survived, in which the work can be seen, with both the artist himself and his patron Prince Karel Schwarzenberg standing in front of it. This atmospheric work – one of the highlights of Austrian Color Field painting around 1975 –belongs to the small group of works that Mairwöger signed and dated on the front.