19 000 CZK
| 760 €
Lot 193
HEAD OF AN ART DEALER
59 x 43 cm (h x w)
Starting price
Price realized
19 000 CZK
| 760 €
| 760 €
price without premium
Mixed media on paper.
Signed lower right: "Wagner"
Reverse: Městské muzeum Mariánské Lázně (Mariánské Lázně Municipal Museum), 1996; Hradec Králové, 2001; GAVU Cheb (Gallery of Fine Art in Cheb), 2004-2005.
Working with gestures and layering, this impressive portrait of an Art Dealer hails from the extensive “Heads” series (including his works Head of a Teacher, Head of Investigator K., Head of Investigator L., Head of a Deserter, and Head of an Executor of Police Orders), which started to appear in Josef Wágner's oeuvre in the late 1960s. The son of the important interwar and postwar sculptor Josef Wagner (1901–1957), he studied architecture at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design before focusing on the interior home design, garden architecture, photography and stage and set design. For nearly 30 years he created exhibition designs for the National Gallery in Prague and as the head of the Exhibition Center of the Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists. He started painting in 1957, and painted regularly from 1963. In his work he focused on Prague themes, particularly Holešovice and its docks. World War II themes appear often from the latter half of the 1960s. Following the 1968 invasion and occupation, he turned his attention to general still life and landscape themes; dominant towers and cranes appear. After 1989 he also made paintings and prints inspired by his residencies in Greece, Italy and France, as well as works reflecting the modern world in mythical motifs and symbols of power. His works are represented in a number of public and private collections both inside and outside the Czech Republic.
Apart from some 800 oil paintings, he has created a number of drawings and prints (Grand Diploma for Graphics, International Biennial Exhibition Tuzla, 2004). He has received the Czech-Bavarian Art Society Award (1994), the Masaryk Academy of Art Award (1997) and the Rudolf II Award for artistic and cultural activities (1997).
The painting is from the artist's family.