306 - Carry Hauser* (Vienna 1895 - 1985 Rekawinkel)

Carry Hauser* (Vienna 1895 - 1985 Rekawinkel) Young man with tie oil/canvas 30 x 24 cm monogrammed CH depicted in Cabuk, catalogue raisonné Hauser, 2012, p. 211, nr. 1912 M 2 SCHÄTZPREIS / ESTIMATE € 600 - 1200 STARTPREIS / STARTING PRICE € 600 Carry Hauser was an Austrian painter, stage designer, poet, and writer of the 20th century whose multifaceted work encompassed painting, graphic arts, literature, and cultural and political engagement. He is considered one of the most important artistic figures of the interwar period and a defining figure of Austrian Modernism. He received his training at the School of Applied Arts in Vienna, where he studied under Alfred Roller, Oskar Strnad, Anton von Kenner, and Adolf Michael Boehm—teachers who introduced him to both the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshops) and the aesthetic ideals of a modern, stylistically clear formal language. In 1914, Hauser volunteered for service in the First World War, but returned deeply shaken and subsequently became a committed pacifist. The writer Franz Theodor Csokor became a close friend, and the art critic Arthur Roessler played a crucial role in his early career. Hauser was a member of the artists' group Freie Bewegung (Free Movement) and belonged to the Hagenbund – one of the most progressive art associations of the Austrian interwar period – from 1925 to 1938. He lived for a time in Passau, where he formed the expressionist-influenced artists' group Der Fels (The Rock) with Georg Philipp Wörlen, Reinhard Hilker, Fritz Fuhrken, and Franz Bronstert. He had been married to the classical philologist Gertrude Herzog-Hauser since 1922, who significantly influenced his literary thinking. During the Second World War, he lived in exile in Switzerland, while his wife and son fled to the Netherlands. After the war, Hauser returned to Vienna and actively participated in the cultural reconstruction. As General Secretary and later Vice President of the Austrian PEN Club, he championed exiled artists, writers, and the intellectual heritage of the liberal arts; later, he became Honorary President of the New Hagenbund. Stylistically, Hauser's work evolved from a classical, academic training through an expressionist phase to New Objectivity, with his pieces consistently exhibiting a narrative visual language, symbolic power, and a moral stance. Themes such as love, death, eros, religious visions, and the human condition in times of social upheaval permeate his oeuvre. In the portraiture of the 1920s, he developed a concise, psychologically charged form of representation, in which the influences of George Grosz, Otto Dix, and Ludwig Meidner are evident—artists who, like Hauser, combined social critique and empathy in a unique reality. Among the institutions closely associated with his name are the Vienna School of Applied Arts, the Albertina, the Belvedere, and the Professional Association of Visual Artists. His work is also part of the Austrian graphic arts of the interwar period and of exile art, which, in emigration, maintained a voice against injustice and intellectual narrow-mindedness. From the mid-1960s onwards, Hauser undertook several trips to Africa, the impressions of which were reflected in a series of works with African motifs. Carry Hauser is today considered a prime example of the 20th-century European artist-intellectual – shaped by wartime experiences, humanist thought, and an unwavering belief in the moral and social power of art. PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights and platform fee. In the case of normal taxation (marked ° at the estimate), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax is added to the sum of the highest bid, the buyer's premium and platform fee. This amounts to 13% for paintings, drawings, graphic works and sculptures and 20% for photographs and all other items. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.