Lot 163

Josef Liesler (1912 - 2005) HAMLET

Strong inspiration from Surrealism is evident throughout Josef Liesler’s oeuvre. He himself called his work “fantastic reality”, bringing together fantastic ideas and recollections, contemporary issues and historical memory. He painted apocalyptic images of monsters and phantoms, machines and conjoined people, beasts and mutants that threaten humankind. In his works from the 1970s, his distinctive style displays the artist's lighthanded improvisation and exceptional industriousness. This combination allowed him to delve into a variety of fields of art: painting, fine and applied graphics, stamp and poster design, illustrations, monumental painting, mosaics and sgraffito. The work Hamlet belongs to one of the elaborations of the topic, to which Josef Liesler returned. It is possible that the striking questions of Hamlet's being and non-being have become internal motives of his own work in the existential position.