Rudolf Wacker

Somebody told me, I would show the debris of bourgeois culture - this statement actually grasps the essence of my work (Rudolf Wacker).

 

 Rudolf Wacker, Self-Portrait, 1927

Rudolf Wacker (1893-1939) attended the College for Commercial Drawing in Bregenz, Austria. In 1910/11 he studied at the private painting school of Bauer in Vienna and from 1911 to 1914 at the Academy of Art in Weimar under Albin Egger-Lienz and Walter Klemm. 

Rudolf Wacker, Ilse Wacker with Mask, 1925

At first a draughtsman and graphic desinger, Rudolf Wacker started painting in 1922 - after his return from five years in Russian captivity in Siberia and a longer stay in Berlin. Because of Erich Heckel and his friends Rudolf Wacker had been confronted with expressionism during his time in Berlin. Later Maurice Utrillo strongly influenced the artist who, by the mid-twenties, had developed his own style which was to label him a precursor of "Magic Realism". 

Rudolf Wacker, Japanese Doll, 1937

In 1923/24 the artist lived in Vienna and in 1924 he settled in his hometown Bregenz. He was a founding member of the artists' association "Der Kreis" and was in charge of a nude painting class at the trade school in Bregenz from 1936 to 1938. In 1934, Wacker participated in the Venice Biennale. In 1939, he died from a heart attack after the Gestapo had  searched his house several times. 

 Rudolf Wacker, Winter Landscape, c. 1930

More paintings by Rudolf Wacker can be seen here on my Flickr page.