I was born half year before the Second World War ended. While I cannot remember anything about the war itself, I remember growing up in post-war Vienna (Allied Occupied Austria), in the Russian-occupied sector. More than half of the buildings on our street were bombed out. Rebuilding took time, most was not done until the mid-fifties. The ruins were our playground. We built shelters with the bricks and boards laying about. At times we (more scared than bravely) entered the underground cellars of these destroyed buildings.
Nearby where we lived was the Ankerbrotfabrik (a bread factory). At 6 AM they would sound the shift siren, which was a loud, long howl. It sounded much like an air raid siren. Many years after the war still, it would waken my mother and she would instinctively grab us kids out of bed to seek shelter. The trauma lingered on for a long time. I think sometimes that I must have absorbed some while in the womb, when my mother fled Vienna to a safer place in the country, where eventually I was born. Fear stalked me for a long time in my childhood.
This painting, a self portrait, was a reaction to these memories.
ADAM IN PAIN - acrylic on canvas - 46 x 61 cm - 1991
On my website, you find links to other sites where prints are available.
This was one of the works exhibited last year at the Nautilus Gallery in Wuppertal. I posted about this exhibition twice: EXHIBITION TRAUMTAFEL and MY ARTWORK AT THE UPCOMING EXHIBITION TRAUMTAFEL - NAUTILUS STUDIO WUPPERTAL.
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