457 - Markus Prachensky* (Innsbruck 1932 - 2011 Vienna)

Markus Prachensky* (Innsbruck 1932 - 2011 Vienna) Solitude, 1965 indian ink/cardboard 98,5 x 64,5 cm signed Prachensky, dated 65 SCHÄTZPREIS / ESTIMATE °€ 6000 - 8000 STARTPREIS / STARTING PRICE °€ 6000 Prachensky is the son of the Tyrolean architect and painter Wilhelm Nicolaus Prachensky. In 1952, he moved from Innsbruck to Vienna, where he began studying architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts; a year later, he also commenced studies in painting. Among his formative teachers was Albert Paris Gütersloh, whose artistic philosophy—alongside encounters with international modernism—shaped Prachensky’s development. Architectural thinking remained essential to his painting: his abstract compositions combine gestural movement with a keen awareness of space, surface, and tectonic order. In this context, Fritz Wotruba—with his rigorously structured sculpture built from volumes and solid forms—also represents a key reference point within Viennese post-war modernism. The circle surrounding the Galerie nächst St. Stephan, directed by Otto Mauer, became a crucial forum for Austrian post-war abstraction and Viennese Art Informel. In 1957, the Vienna Secession—of which Prachensky was a member—showcased the group’s work in a major exhibition. While Hollegha, Mikl, and Rainer each developed distinct approaches navigating the interplay between color space, figuration, and gestural overpainting, Prachensky arrived at a unique visual language defined by dynamism and the color red. At the same time, his work engages in an international dialogue with Informel, Tachism, and Abstract Expressionism. Karl Otto Götz, Georges Mathieu, and Hans Hartung offer points of comparison regarding rapid, energetic gestures and the sign-like quality of the line, while Pierre Soulages provides a parallel for the material and spatial impact of color. Artists such as Sam Francis, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Cy Twombly illustrate the broader context of a style of painting that centers on movement, process, spontaneous mark-making, and the openness of pictorial space. These names serve as art-historical points of comparison rather than indications of direct personal relationships. From 1983 to 2000, Prachensky was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and headed the master class for painting. Today, his works can be found in the Belvedere, the Essl Collection in Klosterneuburg, and the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, among other places. 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.