“In my painting, there is no break with so-called reality. I introduce my world of fantasy by devious means, but paintings of the imagination retain a genuine claim to reality. They exist or they may one day exist.” It is in this way that Arik Brauer, an Austrian painter with a worldwide reputation, explains his style of painting. Born on 4 January 1929 in the district of Ottakring in Vienna, the son of a Jewish shoemaker from Lithuania, Arik Brauer is beyond doubt one of the most important exponents of Austrian contemporary art. As one of the main representatives of the Viennese School of Fantastic Realism, Brauer enjoys an excellent international reputation, his works having been displayed in the most famous museums and galleries around the world.

After the end of the Second World War, Arik Brauer began studying at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. During his years of travelling through Europe, Africa and the Orient as well as visits to Paris and Israel, Brauer initially earned his living from a variety of performances as a singer and dancer, and it was only around 1960 that painting became his main activity. Although over the last decades he has also successfully given poetic expression to his feelings, opinions and views as a songwriter, poet, stage designer and architect, painting has remained the greatest passion of this widely talented artist.
Brauer’s work is characterised by areas of bright colours, detail work at the figurative level and the inclusion of current political events in mysteriously encoded pictures with subtle messages in an atmosphere of dream and fairytale, in which the influence of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and oriental miniature painting can frequently be identified. From 1986 to 1997, the artist, the recipient of many awards, was ordinary professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, while the Arik Brauer Haus in the 6th District of Vienna, completed in 1994, beyond doubt constitutes the largest visible sign of his extensive aesthetic creativity. (To quote Brauer: “The harmonious coexistence of fine art and architecture was always of great importance to me. The artist must be involved in the planning from the very start, and must get his hands dirty in the execution of the work itself.”) Arik Brauer, the epitome of a family man, also likes to cultivate his artistic collaboration with his three daughters Timna, Ruth and Talja.

Source: Austria Post 

published October 10th, 2011