Richard Gerstl

The Viennese artist Richard Gerstl is still regarded as being an insider tip. And yet he was one of the most important artists in Vienna in around 1900, alongside Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka. Although he was only 25 years old when he died, he created an exciting and unusual oeuvre. This volume accompanying the first comprehensive retrospective in Germany introduces all the aspects of this exceptional artist. The artistic career of Richard Gerstl (1883-1908) extended over only approximately five years. During his lifetime he refused to allow his work to be exhibited in any way. As a result of his dramatic early death by his own hand many of his works were destroyed and almost no personal belongings have survived. The present work on his entire oeuvre finally fills the gap this has left. In his subjects portraits, landscapes and nude paintings, including the first nude self-portrait by an artist since Dürer, Gerstl succeeded in freeing his style from that of Salon painting. He applied the paint in an increasingly pastose and free manner and created pictures which are regarded as some of the most modern works of his time.--