Karl Mader

Abend (Evening),

etching, circa 1910-20

 

Karl Mader, Fürstenfeld (Steiermark)1884-1952 Graz

"Abend" ["Evening"] (Death and its Companions)

etching

23,7 × 29,6 cm  

circa 1910-1920

in pencil below left titled ("Abend") and below right signed ("Karl Mader")

 

Magnificent, strong, expressive print with a wide margin. Smaller tears or blemishes, as well as somewhat stained, in the white margin, otherwise in excellent condition.


"Austrian artist Karl Mader spent "[f]our years of study at the Graz School of Applied Arts, initially sculpture, then painting with A. Schrötter, and in 1902/03 at the Vienna School of Applied Arts with [Alfred] Roller and at the Munich Academy with L. Herterich. Further training with [Ferdinand] Hodler in Geneva and then at the Académie Julian in Paris. In 1900, he returned to his birthplace, Fürstenfeld, where he taught at the Staatsrealschule from 1909–20. He then taught at the Graz Kunstgewerbeschule from 1920–24. And after giving up that position, he lived as a freelance artist in Graz. From 1924, Mader was a member of the Styrian Artists' Cooperative and the Artists' Union of Graz, and, from 1935,  a member of the Vienna Künstlerhaus. From around 1932, Mader, under the influence of Hodler and Egger Lienz, took up monumental figurative painting. Expansively conceived paintings were created in which monumentality appears paired with philosophical tendencies. "  Michaela Pappernigg, ed., Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts. Bestandskatalog der Österreichischen Galerie des 20. Jahrhunderts, Bd. 3: L–R (Vienna: Österreichischen Galerie Belvedere, 1997), pg. 55 (English translation of this excerpt by Jack Daulton).

Alfred Roller
Testimonial for artist Karl Mader
1905
autograph manuscript
signed lower right: "Alfred Roller ... Professor"
dated lower left: "Wien, am 14.9.05."
The Daulton Collection

Translation of the testimonial: 

"Mr. Karl Mader was a student in 1901/02 in the department of the K. K. Kunstgewerbeschule [Imperial-Royal School of Applied Arts] in Vienna, which I was head of at the time, and I have had the opportunity to examine his achievements carefully since then.  I have remained in a relationship with him, which allowed me to gain an insight into his artistic activity; and I have come to believe that Mr. Karl Mader not only has unusual talent, but that his artistic achievements in the field of painting are already outstanding, which I emphasize, go far beyond the scope of the school and must be understood as independent achievements by an outstanding artist. "  (English translation by Jack Daulton)

Alfred Roller (1864-1935), Austrian set designer, painter, and graphic artist, was a co-founder of the Vienna Secession in 1897.  From 1899, he was a professor of drawing at the School of Applied Arts, Vienna.

Symbolismus

The Daulton Collection

info@symbolismus.com