470 - Gotthard Muhr* (Schwanenstadt 1939 - 2013 Vienna)

Gotthard Muhr* (Schwanenstadt 1939 - 2013 Vienna) Vanitas oil/canvas 35 x 65 cm verso estate stamp SCHÄTZPREIS / ESTIMATE € 1000 - 2000 STARTPREIS / STARTING PRICE € 1000 Gotthard Muhr was an Austrian painter, graphic artist, sculptor, and university professor. Born on December 30, 1939, in Schwanenstadt, Upper Austria, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna from 1958 to 1964, training under Christian Ludwig Martin and Max Melcher in the master class for painting and graphic art. He completed his studies in 1964, qualifying as a graphic artist and painter; in 1965, he pursued further studies in the master school for medallic art under Ferdinand Welz. Muhr lived and worked as a freelance artist in Vienna and Burgenland. In 1966, he received the Austrian State Prize for Graphic Art and represented Austria at events such as the 1975 São Paulo Biennial. From 1976 to 2000, he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. As a board member of the Vienna Secession from 1983 to 1993, he played a role in its artistic reorientation. His art reflects human conflict, violence, and existential experiences, developing a distinctive visual language shaped by the Expressionist tradition. Arnulf Rainer, Cornelius Kolig, Hans Staudacher, and Fritz Wotruba serve as key points of reference. Rainer radicalized the image through overpainting and expressive intensification; Kolig combines body, material, and social experience in often provocative ways. Staudacher represents a form of gestural, informel painting, while Wotruba stands for the block-like, striking sculptural language of Austrian post-war modernism. Art critic and curator Peter Baum also merits mention in the context of promoting contemporary Austrian art. Furthermore, Muhr’s work can be viewed in the context of the younger generation of artists who, from the 1980s onwards, developed a subjective, gesturally charged style of painting known as the Neue Wilde (New Wild Ones). Siegfried Anzinger, Erwin Bohatsch, Herbert Brandl, Gunter Damisch, Josef Danner, Rudolf Goessl, Franz Grabmayr, Josef Kern, Kurt Kocherscheidt, Maria Lassnig, Alois Mosbacher, Hubert Scheibl, Hubert Schmalix, Walter Vopava, and Otto Zitko represent diverse manifestations of art that is expressive, material-conscious, or situated between figuration and abstraction. While Anzinger, Kocherscheidt, and Schmalix each reinterpreted the figure, Bohatsch, Brandl, Damisch, Grabmayr, Scheibl, Vopava, and Zitko developed distinctive forms of gestural or abstract painting. Maria Lassnig placed subjective bodily perception at the center of her work, whereas Alois Mosbacher combined the observation of nature, drawing, and expressive use of color. Within this field of tension—spanning Expressionism, the Neue Wilde, figuration, and abstraction—Muhr’s work emerges as a compelling exploration of the vulnerability, violence, and conflicts inherent in human existence. 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.