SPECIFICATIONS:
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COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Austria.

DATE: 1940s

ARTIST: Rudolf Petrik (1922 - 1991).

MARKS: Pencil inscribed artist's signature "R. Petrik" in the lower left corner. On the back we find the inscription "Petrik" as well as the estate mark with the catalogue of works numbering "240/26" and the title "Landschaft - Grimmenstein NOE".

MATERIAL: Watercolor on thick paper.

MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUE: Fine hand painting.

CONDITION: Good ORIGINAL as found condition with some pinholes and marks along the edges. NO RESTORATION! Please wait for all pictures to load as they illustrate the condition very accurately. For more information about our condition reports, please see our terms of business, as stated in the grey section of this listing.

SIZE: Size is 20.2 x 14.3 inches. (bild 12sz)

SHIPPING: Shipping cost within Europe (All 25 European Union countries, Israel and Switzerland) is US $ 38.50. Shipping cost to the USA and Canada is US $ 48.50 including professional packing (US / Canada customs and duties not included). Shipping cost to Asia, Australia, and New Zealand is US $ 58.50 including professional packing (customs and duties not included). Shipment cost to all other countries upon request. Insurance is required - please read our shipping terms stated in the grey section of this listing.

AUCTION ESTIMATE is US$ 700.00 to US$ 900.00.

With expressive strokes the Austrian artist Rudolf Petrik (1922 - 1991) painted this colorful watercolor landscape. Depicted is a hilly region in Lower Austria with the view on the small town of Grimmenstein. On the lower left edge we find the artist's signature "R. Petrik".

Rudolf Petrik studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts under Professor Josef Dobrowsky and Robin Christian Andersen. He was a member of the Vienna Secessionists - the famous Austrian Artist Association founded by Gustav Klimt in 1897. Only the most outstanding academic painters were entitled to join the Vienna Secession.

Rudolf Petrik is a listed artist at artprice, I found auction results of more than US $ 4.500.00. Already in his life time he was appreciated by connoisseurs and collectors - main works of Rudolf Petrik are to be found in public museums like the "Oesterreichische Galerie" and the "Neue Galerie" in Linz as well as in excellent private collections.

Rudolf Petrik, son of Leopold Petrik (1896 - 1930) and Hermine Petrik (1896 - 1964), was born in Vienna in 1922. After the early death of the father his mother Hermine cared for the rather moderate livelihood of the family as a civil servant of the municipality.

The extensive bequest of Rudolf Petrik reflects his personal and artistic development very well. His record of study tells us that Petrik studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts from 1945 until 1950 in the class of Robin C. Andersen and subsequently two semesters in the class of Josef Dobrowsky. Petrik's work of this period, mainly sketches, studies and large constructive compositions, show a distinct influence of these professors.

From 1952 on he began to experiment with geometric constructive compositions in the most diverse techniques, whereas he favoured oil, gouache and printing techniques. Already at this time he absorbed the procedures of the artistry of collage.

Since 1953/54 Rudolf Petrik was a member of the artist association of the Vienna Secession, which originally was founded by the world famous painter Gustav Klimt. We can gather from the exhibition catalogues that Petrik was represented in community exhibitions with almost all of the important and influential artists of the post-war era.

From 1960 on Petrik's work demonstrates a high enthusiasm for machine like subject matters and texture: the surfaces of the paintings are multilayered and produce plane monochrome structure reliefs. More and more he incorporated textual excerptions or diary like recordings into his work. The visual implementation of writing attained a central value in his oeuvre in the mid 60s.

Besides his main profession as an artist of fine arts Rudolf Petrik was active as a committed writer during his lifetime and his close contacts to other famous contemporary writers, like Ernst Jandl, Friederike Mayröcker and others, are documented in numerous letters.

Regardless of the circumstance that Petrik's work aroused interest in Austria as well as abroad, for example he was represented in the Parisian gallery Mouffe, the artist Rudolf Petrik spent the last twenty years of his life in bitter poverty and self chosen solitude before he died in 1991. He was an artist, far ahead of his time, who received society's acceptance only post mortem.

In the early 1990s we have acquired the complete artistic estate of Rudolf Petrik. In the year 1995 we established a considerable exhibition catalogue with a lot of illustrations and contents. If you are interested in viewing more of Petrik's work please contact us via email.