Cart is empty 
Karl-Markus Gauss
on the person of the obituary author
His brilliant early work was initially strongly influenced by Kubin. Even before 1950, he radically broke with dense hatching and turned to fine, thin-lined, delicate outlines. He consistently developed an unmistakable line technique with pen and ink that was identified with far beyond Europe.
His technical mastery is complemented by an eye for the original, sometimes offbeat subject matter. His wit ranges from caustic satire to mild irony and serene humor. Flora always saw himself as a draughtsman, even when he was creating caricatures.
Recurring themes are cities such as Venice with its carnival and the commedia dell’arte, acrobats, autumn moods, military scenes, the arrogant arrogance of the ruling classes and the organized philistinism of clubs and associations, erotic and other misfortunes, doomsday scenarios of the imperial and royal monarchy and the great figures of history such as Richard Wagner, Napoleon, Nietzsche and Edgar Allen Poe, among others. His heraldic animal and most common motif is the raven, which is wise and talkative. Insiders know that if you loosen its tongue, it speaks better than any parrot.
In the 1960s, the stroke became firmer, the outline thicker and the inner drawing increasingly dominant. From the seventies onwards, hatching began to reclaim the page in an unmistakable way, creating strong effects with the finely graduated contrast between light and dark. He also used color sparingly as another painterly element in his drawings. While he rarely used watercolor in the 1950s, he increasingly switched to color pencils in the late 1970s and especially in the 1980s. In the 1980s, he added pencil drawing to his oeuvre.
In his later work, a strongly lyrical element is finally added to some of his pictures: autumn landscapes, lonely riders in the fog, bare trees, lonely decaying houses. Flora’s graphic impressiveness was groundbreaking for the 20th century and shaped it as a draughtsman like no other. This made him not only one of the most important, but also one of the most popular draughtsmen in Europe. His works can be found in many public and private collections.
Dr. Thomas Seywald
About the author - Curriculum
Article among others in:
- C. Pack, Modern Graphics in Austria, Hn 1969
- Fuchs, painter (20th century), I 1985
- Wilhelm Busch Museum, Paul Flora, 1984
- Bay. Academy of Fine Arts, Flora’s Fauna, 1997
- Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Drawings 1938-2001, 2002 (for his 80th birthday)
(Source: Dr. Thomas Seywald, estate representative for Paul Flora)
- Der Mensch denkt, 1947;Herr Huber im wilden Westen, 1947;
- Flora’s Fauna, 1953;
- The Musenross, 1955;
- The warhorse in 1957;
- Mourning flora, 1958;
- Vivat Vamp, 1959;
- The ravages of time, 1961;
- Dear me, 1961;
- Königsdramen, 1966;
- Vedute and figures, 1968;
- The educated garden gnome, 1969;
- The rooted Tyroleans and their evil enemies, 1970;
- When the grandfather shot the grandmother, 1971;
- Hungerburg Elegies, 1975;
- Penthouse, 1977;
Der blasse Busenfreund, 1979; - Words in vain, 1981;
- Nocturnos, 1982;
- The Ravens of San Marco, 1985;
- Drawn and written works, 1987;
- The withered splendor, 1990;
- Early drawings, 1992;
- This and That, 1997;
- Drawings (retrospective, 75th birthday)
Paul Flora and Karl Markus Gauss, Ein Florilegium, 2002 (80th birthday); - Paul Flora and Karl Markus Gauss, Die sonderbare Stadt, 2003;
(Source: Dr. Thomas Seywald, estate representative for Paul Flora)
Published between 1989 and 1993:
- The Ravens of San Marco.
- Flora’s fauna.
- A fisherman on the other side. (On Alfred Kubin)
- An adventurer in a robe (on Paul von Rittinger)
Exhibitions (selection):
- Galleries: BERN, Zofingia 1945.
- VIENNA, Neue Galerie 1947.
- MUNICH, Galerie Gurlitt 1949 and subsequently in many hundreds of galleries in Europe and the USA.
- Regular galleries are: Innsbruck (Galerie Flora) and Salzburg (Galerie Seywald).
Museums (selection):
- MUSEUM FERDINANDEUM, Innsbruck 1952
- Start of a traveling exhibition in: FOLKWANG MUSEUM, Essen; KUNSTHALLE BREMEN; WILHELM BUSCH-MUSEUM, Hannover; AARGAUER KUNSTHAUS; KUNSTMUSEUM WINTERTHUR; MUSEE DE GRENOBLE; MUSEUM NYMWEGEN; BIENNALE VENICE, among others
- ART GALLERY BREMEN 1959
- WILHELM BUSCH MUSEUM, Hanover 1963
- VENICE BIENNIAL 1966
- SUERMONT MUSEUM, Aachen 1972
- FOLKWANG MUSEUM, Essen 1974
- MUSEUM NYMWEGEN 1979
- MUSEUM FOR ART AND TRADE, Hamburg 1984
- ALBRECHT DÜRER-HAUS, Nuremberg 1989
- HISTORICAL MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF VIENNA (Retrospective) 1992
- BAYERIAN ACADEMY OF BEAUTIFUL ARTS (Retrospective) 1997
- PALAIS ESPLANADE, Merano (Retrospective) 2002
- PALAIS HARRACH, Vienna (Retrospective) 2002
- Prize of the Tyrolean Provincial Government 1948
- Prize of the Society for the Promotion of New Art, Vienna 1948
- Medal of Honor of the Province of Tyrol 1959
- Honorary engine driver of the Zillertalbahn since 1964
- Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 1985
- Corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts since 1986
- Premio internazionale Asiago d`Arte Filatelica 1986
- Honorary citizen of the town of Glurns 1992
- E.O.Plauen Prize, Chemnitz 1999
- Honorary citizen of the city of Innsbruck 2002
