(Celje/Slowenia 1939 - lives and works in Vienna)

Erfreuliche Schweinerei. 1985.

Acrylic on canvas.

Signed, dated and titled lower right: Drago Prelog Erfreuliche Schweinerei 1985.

120 x 150 cm.

Provenance:
- Acquired from Galerie Land, Vienna, at Art Basel in 1990.
- Privately owned Switzerland; by descent to the present owner.

The so-called „Umlauf-Bilder“ (“Circulating-Pictures”) of the Austrian painter Drago Prelog, to which the present work belongs, show the “traces of a sequence of actions”. The artist returns several times to the flat-lying canvas and follows the circle, respectively the oval, time and time again, thereby superposing layers of colour and creating a thick “Umlauf-Spur” or “Circulating-Trace”. The superimposing of colours, the fine lines as well as the sometimes almost thick application of paint, constitute the uniqueness of this work.

Born in 1939 in Slovenia, Prelog moved with his parents to Austria. From 1954 to 1958, he attended the Bundesgewerbeschule in Graz, focusing mainly on decorative painting. From 1958 to 1962, he studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste where he has also held a chair since 1969. Drago Prelog was awarded the title of Professor in 1999.