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1951 Tragwein/Upper Austria – 2003 Vienna
- Title
- untitled
- Time
- around 1973/74
- Technique
- oil on canvas
- Measurements
- 71 ½×32 ½ in
This atmospheric painting by the renowned Austrian color field painter Gottfried Mairwöger is one of the few large-format works from his time at the Academy. In 1970, at the age of 19, Gottfried Mairwöger began studying painting at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in the master class of Josef Mikl. As early as 1972, the young artist‘s great talent was recognized with the Upper Austrian State Prize for Fine Arts. That same year, Wolfgang Hollegha took over the master class and began guiding Mairwöger on his path to color field painting.
In 1973, Mairwöger was invited by Hollegha to work in his impressive, 46 feet high studio on Rechberg Mountain in Styria. There, Mairwöger created atmospheric paintings depicting blossoms, tree trunks, branches, and other elements of the surrounding landscape. The works from this period are similar to those of Wolfgang Hollegha
but differ in the increased transparency of the paint application and the resulting atmospheric connection between the color and the light background.
The nature-based motifs seem to be permeated – almost dissolved – by a dazzling light. It appears as if Mairwöger aimed to fully illuminate nature with light in order to explore its essence, the underlying force that drives it. In 1973, the artist described this creative process as follows: “My intentions […] in painting are to make nature
visible in a new way through aspects of the painterly form. I do not want to copy nature, but to learn to see through it […].”