HELENE FUNKE (Chemnitz 1869 - 1957 Vienna), Nude

HELENE FUNKE*
(Chemnitz 1869 - 1957 Vienna)
Nude
pencil/paper, 31,1 x 23,5 cm
monogrammed F
Provenance: private property Vienna

ESTIMATE °€ 1.000- 2.000
START € 1.000

German-Austrian painter and graphic artist of the 20th century. Important artist of modernism, is described as a pioneer of emancipation and feminism because of the depictions of women. Born in Chemnitz, studied together with Gabriele Münter at the Munich Ladies Academy from 1899. 1905 to 1913 in Paris like Paula Modersohn-Becker and Käthe Kollwitz. 1913 Moves to Vienna. Member of the artist group Bewegung or Freie Bewegung, member of the group Wiener Frauenkunst and member of the Deutscher Künstlerbund. Exhibited in Paris at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d'Autom/Autumn Salon with Henri Matisse, George Braque and Maurice de Vlaminck. Contact with the Fauves, involvement with Impressionism, Fauvism and Expressionism. In Vienna, participated in exhibitions of the Vienna Secession, the Hagenbund, the Künstlerhaus and the Kunstschau. Created confident portrayals of women, figural scenes, portraits of women, nudes, and still lifes. Bathers, dancers, Arcadian landscapes, metropolitan scenes in theaters with influences from Asiatica and ancient Egyptian mummy portraits. Color explosions with high luminosity and great expressiveness comparable to Helene Taussig. Subtle depictions of the human psyche comparable to Egon Schiele. 2007 first museum retrospective at Lentos in Linz, 2019 appreciation of the artist in the exhibition City of Women at the Austrian Gallery Belvedere. In contrast to the color-intensive paintings safe but delicate lines of the drawing, comparable to Gustav Klimt.

Born in Chemnitz, Saxony, the painter Helene Funke received her artistic training in Munich from 1899 onwards at Friedrich Fehr's painting school and with Angelo Jank at the Ladies' Academy. From 1905 to 1913 she lived in Paris and southern France. There she studied Impressionism and French Fauvism. In France she exhibited with Henri Matisse, Georges Braque and Maurice de Vlaminck, and her work was represented in the Paris Autumn Salons between 1905 and 1913. Most of her work created in France is unknown to researchers today. From 1913 until her death in 1957, she lived in Vienna, where she soon established herself despite constant hostile criticism from the predominantly male art critics.
The depiction of women and girls, regardless of technique, is a theme that occupies an important place in Helen Funke's work, especially between 1907 and 1930. The erotic in Funke's work irritates contemporaries; erotic depictions of women are men's business. In the bending nude, a pencil study, however, the erotic is not in the foreground. The model has placed her right foot on a stool or footstool, which is not even hinted at in the drawing. The surrounding space remains completely undefined. Funke is only interested in the contours of the woman and puts them on paper with a sure stroke.

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