The Demolished Earth, 1994

Painting in oil, acrylic and acrylic spray on canvas.

Dimensions: 155.20 x 155.20 cm

Josef Mikl studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under Josef Dobrowsky from 1948 to 1955. In 1956 he founded the artists' group "Galerie nächst St. Stephan" with Wolfgang Hollegha, Markus Prachensky and Arnulf Rainer. In 1964 he exhibited at documenta III; in 1977 he took part in documenta 6. In 1968 Mikl represented Austria at the Venice Biennale. From 1969 to 1997 Mikl was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

Mikl represented an abstract realism with the human figure as the central theme, and drawing was of great importance to him. Mikl's life and work were closely linked with literature: his glass windows in St. Margarethen are based on an aphorism by Sören Kierkegaard, whose "Silent Despair" he artistically translated into a series of etchings in 1962. When he decorated the Great Redouten Hall in the Vienna Hofburg, he dedicated his 404 m2 ceiling painting to the poem "Youth" by Karl Kraus; for the 22 murals Mikl realised passages of text by Johann Nestroy, Ferdinand Raimund and Elias Canetti in paintings. Johann Nestroy's one-act play "Häuptling Abendwind" inspired him to create a cycle of works with individual scenes and sketched stage sets.