combining symbolism and fantasy in painting

Leonardo

Combining Symbolism and Fantasy in PaintingAuthor(s): Joshy StieberSource: Leonardo, Vol. 17, No. 4 (1984), pp. 245-246Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1575100 .

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Combining Symbolism and Fantasy in Painting

Joshy Stieber

Abstract-The author capsulizes influences in his life and describes how they have affected his painting and thinking.

I was born and raised in the small city of Innsbruck, Austria. As a young man, my first job was with the railroad. I drove locomotives throughout Austria and into neighboring countries, mostly at night. During this exciting period I first began to draw and paint.

At age 23 I entered an art program that included anatomical studies at the University of Innsbruck. I began drawing and painting portraits, a pursuit I continue today. After completing these art studies, I drew and painted the people around me, mostly young people who had adopted the American styles of dress and appearance. My first exhibit in Innsbruck in 1959 elicited both praise and controversy and caused me to realize it was not in my interest to remain in Innsbruck. In 1953 I moved to Paris, rented a small hotel room, and enrolled as a student at the Ecole Superieure des Beaux Arts. I worked part time to earn a living.

The first major influence on my art work was the staircases of Paris. There flights of stairs are prominent in public buildings, in the Metro, and in old apartment houses where they often rise six or seven storeys high. I painted about 25 oil paintings of staircases. I studied the movements of people climbing stairs, and, influenced by these movements, I modified the bodies I showed on stairs, giving them small heads, slim torsos, large hips, and long legs, as in Escalier (Staircase) (Fig. 1).

After 1 year in Paris, I had the good fortune of moving to a small apartment on the fifth floor of the Palais Royal. Coming and going I passed between columns in the garden of the Palais. I dreamed about life in past centuries at the Palais and made surrealistic color draw- ings of the women of the Palais Royal.

My apartment had another curious effect on my work. Unlike the larger, more luxurious apartments of the Palais,

my quarters on the top floor had a low ceiling. I became particularly conscious of living space. I thought about how modern architecture sometimes encloses people in cylinders and spheres, spaces that seem unnatural and uncomfortable.

People tend to imprison themselves. They talk about freedom, but do not appear to me to be free. They create their own prison bars. This had greater impact on my work than any previous idea and led to the Prisoner in the Sphere (Fig. 2).

I

Joshy Stieber is an artist. Am Rain 11, Innsbruck 6020, Austria. (Received 10 September 1982)

Pergamon Press Ltd. Printed in Great Britain. 0024-094X/84 $3.00+0.00

Fig. 1. Escalier (Staircase), ink on paper, 65 x 40 cm, 1964. Collection Museum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, Austria.

LEONARDO, Vol. 17, No. 4, pp. 245-246, 1984 245



I continued working in this spirit for about 6 years. But I no longer included human bodies in my paintings. The subjects of my work concerned the microcosmos and macrocosmos revealed by modern science. My work in this domain included painting in oils and acrylics, ink drawing, and etching.

For the past 10 years, I have considered the microcosmos and macrocosmos in relation to people. I often show human figures in these pictures. Usually the figures wear blindfolds, as in Die Blindengruppe (A Group of Blind People) (see color plate No. 1). The blindfolded figures symbolize worldly wisdom, com-

prehension, and truth, in contrast to frivolity and deceit, which are often conveyed through open eyes.

In 1979 I returned to Innsbruck, where I now have a studio. During the summers I work in Paris. I have traveled a long road to find my way [1, 2].

REFERENCES

1. Jostie: Joshy Stieber 1966-69. Exhibit catalog (Paris: Galerie Jacques Despri6res, 1969).

2. Jostie: Joshy Stieber 1963-81. Exhibit catalog (Vienna: Junior Galerie, 1981).

Fig. 2. Prisoner in the Sphere, oil on canvas, 100 x 80 cm, 1966.

Stieber, Symbolism and Fantasy in Painting 246



No. 1. Top left. Joshy Stieber. Die Blindengruppe (A Group of Blind People), acrylic on canvas, 160 x 100 cm, 1983.

No. 2. Top right. Timothy Richards. Detail of Softvolt , plastic neon fluorescent tubes and computer-generated projections, 12 x 12 ft, 1983.

No. 3. Bottom left. Tony Robbin. Lobofour, acrylic on canvas with welded steel rods, 8 ft x 12 ft x 18 inches, 1982.

No. 4. Bottom right. Dustin Shuler. (a) A 1964 356 C Porsche. (b) 356 Porsche Pelt, 12 x 15 ft, 1983.















combining symbolism and fantasy in painting

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