Page 19 - Studio International - December 1965

Joann is Avramidis Austrian sculpture
Figure and Drawing
Karl Prantz
Meditation
Basalt. 2.30 x 1.50 x 0.60 cm.
PHOTOS: OTTO BREICHA

weighing of the elements and characteristic harmony of
Spirit and Nature, that quite specific mixture of repre­
sentational striving 2nd vigorous creation. Precisely in
the progressive distortions of the later style which, as
positive counter-world, opposes the dull conditions of
existence, seriousness and propriety are more absolutely
and urgently expressed than ever before. Simul­
taneously with this final development in the work of
Fritz Wotruba, a necessary process which is nothing
less than the cogent conclusion of the previously
adduced premises, Rudolf Hoflehner progressed from
the multiform, 'cumulative' iron sculptures with which
in 1960 he was so very successful at the Biennale in
Venice, to the relatively slender, yet surveyable con­
fiourations of the years 1963 and 1964. Out of the con­
templatively philosophical image equations has been
distilled a pregnant form idol: symbolic correspond­
ences for male and female principles. That which was
hitherto expressible in terms of assembly has become
conscious and deliberate 'setting'. Like the metaphorical
in Wotruba's creation, the works of the early-deceased
Urteil are in their essence contrived with complete
artistry. An inspired arrangement of the individual forms
determined Urteil's creative technique: relation and
differentiation of the parts took place from element to
element, combining them in a total, always figuratively
conceived rhythm. This passionately animated rhythm is
common to the work of Urteil and Erwin Reiter. In both
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