Lot 12: Wolfgang Rabl

Wolfgang Rabl Austrian (b. 1942) UNDRESSING color engraving, framed, signed & numbered: lower margin in pencil plate size: H13" W7" *Artist biography: A contemporary Austrian painter and etcher, Wolfgang Rabl studied art techniques at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste, Vienna, in 1964 and 1965. At this time Vienna was the center for the influential movement known as 'Fantastic Realism'. Generally, Fantastic Realism combines extreme realism with either fantasy or elements of the unconscious. The movement was officially founded in 1947 by such artists as Rudolf Hausner (1914-1995), Wolfgang Hutter and Anton Lehmden. Another well known representative was Ernst Fuchs (born, 1930). Wolfgang Rabl is one of the leading exponents of the second generation of Fantastic Realism. In both his paintings and etchings the artist primarily explores erotic elements in an almost subconscious, surreal world. In Woman and Various Figures in a Desert Landscape the composition portrays a seductively dressed, seated woman gazing out at us, the viewer. She wears strangely mismatched shoes and is surrounded by several elaborate mirrors. Her elongated finger nails are potential weapons. Behind her a thin man contorts himself into a ballet-like pose. In the background a hooded woman in high-heels walks away into the vast desert. The more one examines this truly haunting etching the more compelling it becomes. During his career Wolfgang Rabl participated in major exhibitions in Prague, Munich, Linz, Malmo, Stockholm and Vienna. Today his paintings and etchings are included in public collections in Austria, Germany and Sweden.