Ernst and Michael Fuchs

'The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism formed in 1946 and included Ernst Fuchs, Rudolph Hausner, Wolfgang Hutter and Fritz Janschka. Arik Brauer and Anton Lehmden joined later. The group saw itself as surrealist although they were already moving away from the surrealist painting of the 1930s towards a more visionary approach. Technically their work had the clarity and detail of early Flemish Painting.

They were quite influential on the continent, but little known or appreciated in Britain. In 1957 Hausner fell out with surrealist orthodoxy after completing his first Adam picture and split from Fuchs and the others to pursue his own vision. Fuchs had already moved away from surrealism into visionary mannerism. He painted a number of paintings with religious subjects culminating in his triptych The Mysteries of the Holy Rosary for the Catholic church in Hetzendorf, Vienna.

His paintings from the late 50s to the present day have extraordinary visionary power. Babylonian Cherubs, visions of Christ and other mythological subjects explore the roots of middle eastern religious experience. The power of colour, form and content set his work apart from modernism.

In 1970, he began to work on monumental sculptures. Later in 1973, he acquired the Otto Wagner Villa in Vienna, which he subsequently renovated completely and which is now the Ernst Fuchs Museum and contains a complete range of his work to date. He then undertook stage designs for operas, especially Wagner. In the 1980s, he had a number of international exhibitions including a retrospective in Venice. In 1993 he had a major retrospective in Russia — one of the first major western artists to do so.'

'The life of Ernst Fuchs has been everything but conventional and filled with extremes. This is reflected in the works of Ernst Fuchs, which are very special and often mysterious. A reoccurring theme in his paintings are religious and supernatural elements, reflecting on his deep spirituality and the fact that he is Jewish and later was baptized roman-catholic. Ernst Fuchs himself mentioned that he always created pictures and images resembling dreams and hallucinations.'

'Michael Fuchs was born in Paris, France in 1952. He spent his childhood and youth with his mother, Geraldine Krongold, in New York City and Los Angeles.

1970 artist leaves America to study painting with his father Ernst Fuchs and Anton Lehmden at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, earning a Masters degree in Fine Arts in 1976.

In 1980 he commenced with studies in architecture under Gustav Peichl at the same Academy, receiving a Masters degree in Architecture in 1987.

Since 1971 the artist has travelled throughout Europe and the USA showing his work in numerous group and one-man exhibitions. Among the many commissions Mr. Fuchs has received, he has persued portraiture with special intensity. The human face, he maintains, is the culmination of nature. He is especially known for his portraits of celebrities, nobility and public leaders as well as private persons and families. His commissions hang in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Diego, Knoxville and Washington D.C. as well as Boca Raton, Denver and Santa Fe. In Europe portraits of his hang in Vienna, Graz, Salzburg, Vaduz, Paris, London, Hamburg und Zürich as well as Maastricht and Berlin, Lübeck and in Bremen.

Together with oil painting, Michael Fuchs studied the old-masters technique of etching and has, since 1970, worked continually to build up an impressive repertoire of copper-plate etchings, which have received international recognition. Since 1990 the artist has lived and worked in Klosterneuburg, near Vienna.

In 1998 he was honored by giving his Holiness Pope John Paul II a painting of the Holy Family, during the Pontiffs visit to Austria.'

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Karol Szymanowski - Stabat Mater Dolorosa.