Visionary Artist
Ernst Fuchs
Visionary art or fantastic art has become a long standing movement with masters both past and present. Ernst Fuchs is one of the living elders of this painting movement. His works, life and teachings have been an inspiration for generations of emerging artists. His students are among the best known visionary artists and they too push into inner territories of imaginative artistic expression. His impact upon the contemporary visionary art scene cannot be understated. The quality and reception of his work as well as The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism has inspired many people world-wide. Ernst Fuchs remains one of the most influential visionary artists and professors of art in the world today.
Ernst Fuchs was born in 1930 in Vienna. He has produced many hundreds of paintings, recorded music, designed architecture and is a co-founder of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism. He brilliantly displays the visionary vistas of the human imagination with surreal themes and spiritual symbolism. He is a professor and artist teaching the techniques of the Flemish masters and his students include Mati Klarwien, Robert Venosa, Martina Hoffman, Amanda Sage and Maura Holden. In 1972 he acquired the derelict Otto Wagner Villa in Hütteldorf, which he transformed into the Ernst Fuchs Museum. The villa was inaugurated as the Ernst Fuchs Museum in 1988. Ernst Fuchs is still teaching and painting to this day.
Ernst Fuchs depicts the world of imagination. He explores themes of eternity, mysticism, life and death. The inner visionary vistas are brought to life through the art. His works seem to tap into a deep seeded wisdom sown in the past. This Wisdom depicted in his work is about spiritualism, religion and imagination all seamlessly woven together with a historical perspective. Fuchs’ support of fantastic art also supports the human desire to explore the inner cosmos and to see the fluid exchange between the inner realities.
He teaches and paints using a painting technique known as Mischtechnik. Mischtechnik utilizes small amounts of paint applied with glazes using egg tempera. This application of paint can be seen in the works of his students (see previous posts Maura Holden and Mati Klarwien) and the Flemish masters of old. The thin layers of pigment are separated by the transparent glazes creating depth and vivid colors which are ideal for the visionary realms of fantastic art. Fuchs utilizes this traditional technique for painting and through it feels a connection with the master painters of old. As though by studying proven techniques of the past he is carrying on the lineage of that painting tradition and carrying with him the lexicon of master painters.
By: Transpersonal Spirit
Links to artists trained by Ernst Fuchs:
Mati Klarwien- https://transpersonalspirit.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/visionary-art-mati-klarwein/
Martina Hoffmann- https://transpersonalspirit.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/visionary-artist-martina-hoffmann/
Robert Venosa – https://transpersonalspirit.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/visionary-art-robert-venosa/
A. Andrew Gonzalez – https://transpersonalspirit.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/visionary-art-a-andrew-gonzalez/
Maura Holden – https://transpersonalspirit.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/visionary-art-maura-holden/
Bibliography.
‘Ernst Fuchs Speaks’ by L. Caruana. http://visionaryrevue.com/webtext3/fuchsint1.html
http://www.ernstfuchs-zentrum.com/html/bio2.html
http://www.matiklarweinart.com/en/mati-klarwein-biography.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Fuchs_%28artist%29
Norman Hathaway and Dan Nadel. The Electric Banana: Masters of Psychedelic Art. Grafiche Damiani, Bologna, Italy. 2001.
Transpersonal Spirit 