Fantastic realism

Fantastic realism is an Austrian movement grouped around the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, founded in Vienna in 1946 and named in the 1950s; its first exhibition was held in 1959 at the Belvedere. The group answered the dominance of abstraction after the Second World War with a meticulously naturalistic rendering of visionary subject matter, drawing on religious and esoteric symbolism in ways akin to Surrealism but painted with the craft of the old masters - glazing, fine detail and deep varnish. Hybrid creatures, metamorphoses, apocalyptic and alchemical imagery recur across its members' work. The school's fusion of hallucinatory content with academic technique gave fantasy painting a lasting European home.

Defining characteristics

• Fantastic, dreamlike subject matter painted in meticulous naturalistic detail
• Religious, mythological and esoteric symbolism
• Old-master craft: glazing, fine brushwork and luminous varnish
• Metamorphic, hybrid forms - bodies merging with architecture, nature or machine
• Dense, encrusted surfaces that reward close looking

Key figures

• Ernst Fuchs (1930-2015) — Co-founder whose religious-mystical vision set the school's tone
• Arik Brauer (1929-2021) — Painter of vibrant, folklore-rich visionary landscapes
• Rudolf Hausner (1914-1995) — Psychological self-portraitist of the school's archetypal figures
• Anton Lehmden (1929-2018) — Painter of apocalyptic, mythic landscapes in the school's vein

Sources

• Fantastic realism - Wikipedia encyclopedia

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