Beyond 'Airbrushed from art history' (2)

Walter Navratil was considered one of the most interesting outsiders of the Austrian art scene in the second half of the twentieth century but is now an overlooked figure. I've recently found the catalogue of his 1984 exhibition at the Galerie Würthle and have been impressed with the quality and originality of his work.
Dr Agnes von der Borch, who wrote the texts to accompany the images in the catalogue, writes:

"In the presence of these two pictures [Crucifixion in yellow and Crucifixion], I regret having to speak or write at all. It seems more fitting to give myself up to the contemplation of them. For one thing, their almost two thousand year-old theme is familiar to everybody, and for another, Navratil interprets it in such a way that the viewer can no longer remain a detatched onlooker, a mere receiver of optical signals, but finds himself drawn into a close and intense involvement.

If I were a believer, I would pray ...

I am simply not up to expressing in words the beauty and the sublimity of these <<Crucifixions>>." (Click here to see a related image - Der Schwarze Christus)

In his Foreword Hans Dichand writes that to "a certain extent this is true of the whole of Walter Navratil's work ... There is much that is beyond the power of words to express, and yet we can sense the true validity of this art, its vision, its genius, if we are able, as we look at it, to listen to the voice of our hearts."

We have, of course, not been able to do so because Navratil's work has not been generally valued and discussed since his death in 2003. Borch writes that a "quick survey of Navratil's work shows him to be a painter of great stylistic versatility. Expressionism, Abstract Expressionism, Neue Sachlichkeit, Surrealism, Art brut all these traditional styles are represented in his paintings in new combinations and variations ... What Navratil certainly does is to exploit the possibilities of the style he has chosen to the absolute limit ..."

Kay Haymer wrote, in the catalogue for his 1998 exhibition at the BAWAG Foundation, "The fascination of the paintings by Walter Navratil is based on their ability to alienate the familiar and to bring it back into awareness.”

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Tom Waits - Jesus Gonna Be Here.