Albert Reuss (1889-1976)

 

The son of a Jewish Budapest butcher moved to Vienna as a teenager to become an artist. He taught himself studying the great masters at the Viennese art museums, while making a great number of other artistic attempts and trying to make a living as an odd-job man. When he fully dedicated himself to painting in the 20's, his style was expressive, with a pastose colour application and a vivid colour palette. In 1930, a patron enabled him to spent one year at the French Riviera. The landscapes, still lives and figurations he executed there were exhibited at the renowned Galerie Würthle in Wien in 1931, were Reuss' artwork had already been presented in a group show in 1926, made possible by the Gesellschaft zur Förderung moderner Kunst/Society for Supporting Modern Art.
In 1932, Reuss became a member of the Hagenbund, in 1933, his paintings were shown in Chicago. In 1938, however, after the "Anschluss", he and his wife Rosa had to emigrate to England, where he finally settled in Mousehole (Porthynys), Cornwall. As the War broke out he was interned by British authorities, soon to be released. Reuss exhibited in various provincial galleries around southern England and even had one-man shows at the renowned O'Hana Gallery in London on a regular basis. Nonetheless, he by and large completely despaired as a consequence of the generally cool reaction of London art dealers. "I became so pessimistic that I resigned, and I no longer cared at all what was happened to me..." Eventually, he completely went on lead a very reclusive life Mousehole, where he continued to dedicate himself to painting intensively.But his paintings were getting ever more gloomy and gave evidenve of his mental situation at the time. He called his paintings "works of loneliness". In 1975, his artwork was shown at the BAWAG Foundation in Vienna. Reuss died in the same year in Mousehole, aged 86 years.
In recent years, Reuss has moved back into focus due to an increase in awareness of the art of the "lost generation". In 2007, works by Albert Reuss were shown as part of the exhibition "Zwischen den Kriegen. Österreichische Kunst 1918 - 1938" at the Leopold Museum in Vienna.

Widder Fine Arts

 

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Austria

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