Gabriele Baumgartner

Text / catalogue:

Josef Mikl, Arbeiten auf Papier

hrsg. von Brigitte Mikl Bruckner

Vienna

2024

A glance at his artistic oeuvre reveals just how intensively and extensively Josef Mikl used various media and techniques to formulate his perceptions and views: in addition to important glass windows and designs for sacred objects, a lifelong exploration of satire in the form of image-and-text combinations and his own writings about artist friends and views, his painterly works were and remain firmly anchored in the memory of viewers: If one thinks of the design of the Great Redouten Hall of the Vienna Hofburg (1994-1997), where he created a monument to Austrian literature in an epochal ceiling painting and 22 wall works, or the wall painting in the chapel of the Bildungshaus St. Virgil in Salzburg, then it is clear that his work has been a lasting success. Virgil in Salzburg, Josef Mikl's place in Austrian art history is firmly established. In his extensive cycles on Nestroy's one-act play ‘Häuptling Abendwind’ and Nikolai Gogol's ‘Dead Souls’, he artistically interwove literature in the form of graphic and painterly works on canvas and paper and once again created something very memorable.

As Josef Mikl was head of the so-called ‘Abendakt’ programme at the Academy of Fine Arts between 1972 and 1997, the graphic element was always present in his work, even as a teacher. Of course, in the course of his artistic life, he created numerous works using pencil, coloured pencil or pen and ink, or repeatedly resorted to watercolour and tempera. Acrylic colours, however, were never his painting medium. Sometimes Josef Mikl wove graphic elements into his works on canvas. But a real connection and interplay between these disciplines can be found in his painterly works on paper. Sometimes the oil-coloured component predominates, at other times his drawing skills are more present. The feel of the different types of paper, its ability to hold the liquid colour or even the existing basic tone of the picture support may have an influence on the execution and require a different way of thinking and working than a primed canvas can. However, the possibilities offered to the artist on this surface are manifold and can sometimes be solved more playfully and freely. They are like a pause for a moment and a momentary view of the artist on an object and thus tell stories like in a painter's diary.

The viewer encounters the works on canvas much more directly, as the feel of the primer, the consistency of the paint and the brushstroke are immediately recognisable. The works on paper are usually framed and protected from the humidity and light of a room by glass, thereby creating an unconscious, material, transparent separation and thus a different distance between the viewer and the motif. This different way of looking at the artwork also has a certain appeal that requires a different way of seeing.