| |
 |
In the middle of the 90's, the rising star of the art scene in the
late 60's – as he was called by Prof. Otto Staininger, Director
of the "Künstlerhaus" (House of Artists) in Vienna – was
again leaning heavily on tubes of color paint, as usual oils. Back
then he had begun with a very cool style of painting, which leaned
strongly toward perfection, preferably using earthy colors in nuances
of brown. Now his renderings are incomparably looser, full of gestures,
and more expressive. For example, "Picture for Uzzi" (1996-7),
or the tightly turbulent "In from the Storm" (1996-98).
There were several pauses between Ernst Ferdinand's artistic periods. One was
soon after his brilliant start as a painter, which I can still remember well.
It was almost without parallel in the Viennese art scene thirty years ago. The
twenty year-old Wondrusch's 1969 debut in the gallery "Junge Generation"
(Young Generation) in Vienna's Blutgasse (where we then had our ceramic
atelier) was a real sensation.
A twenty year-old moralist masterly presents his negative utopias to us.
"Today, twenty years later, we have already left these utopias behind
us!" exclaims Wondrusch. |
 |
 |
 |
