Dollyfahrten Fahrerseite des BMW 635 CSi. Nah- und Detailaufnahmen. Kranfahrten über die Motorhaube. Totale aufsichtig. Einstellungen Fahrzeugfront; Türen und Haube geöffnet. Stopptrick. Totale Fahrerseite, Beifahrerseite. Dollyfahrten und Standbilder Beifahrerseite. Einstellungen Fahrzeugheck, Unterschrift. Nahaufnahme Fahrzeug rollt aus Bild.

F: Sie haben viele großformatige Werke geschaffen. Ist Größe auch Ihr Motto? “It’s true. I already did monumental paintings at the age of 14 or 15. I painted on cardboard. That was during World War II. Between 1943 and 1945, there were many larger-than-life pieces of cardboard around. Later, I would re-use them as heating material. The whole thing wasn’t quite that important to me then. As a young person, you tend to constantly self-destruct and self-construct. That’s just a fact of life. Shame really. Some of these things have remained. But all of this shows my personal preference of monumental formats and also of religious themes. This first phase of my work has always been at the centre of my entire life’s work – in addition to hundreds of smaller paintings, which you could describe as “easel paintings”, i.e. things which can be moved around. The large paintings have always been created for museums and not for some kind of collective sale.” F: Was können Sie uns über den Fantastischen Realismus, insbesondere die Wiener Schule, erzählen? “Fantastic Realism” – and especially the “Vienna School” – has always enjoyed huge international recognition, up until the present. It has many very young fans all over the world. It’s a phenomenon which is ignored with a vengeance by heads of museums, because it’s an extremely figurative type of painting and also literature-oriented. Hence, it does NOT contain all the elements of “l’art pour l’art”, i.e. abstractness, which is constantly advertised as “art”. All these works basically make no sense. On the occasion of the ”Documenta” fair, big books are written to make sense of it all. These books try to make sense of this nonsense – at least, that’s what it is to me. F: Was meinen Sie mit “Kunst hat keine moralische Verpflichtung mehr“? “The reduction of painting to having a purely decorative function, even if it’s understood as an ideological signal, is characterless. People try to find the easy way out. The moral obligation is, first and foremost, to somehow feel a mandatory attachment to the highest performance of art, as we can judge it. I can’t say that the piano I have treated like, say, John Cage, personifies the kind of progress everybody’s talking about. What about talent which creates things that really moves us deeply? That is all formalistic and much ado about nothing, which cannot be justified by the term “progress” quite that easily. That is no motivation.” F: Sie beziehen sich immer wieder auf die großen bzw. alten Meister. Gibt es Ihrer Ansicht nach heutzutage noch “Große Kunst“? If it were so easy in the arts to create something significant…well, then we should be able to see more of it than we do. Thus, it is NOT quite that easy. Even in the 16th and 17th century, there were artists dedicated to decorative art only, which is proliferating specialization. And today, you won’t even find qualified stucco workers. Maybe you’ll find some in Eastern Europe, but over here, all the fine arts have become extinct. Very sad indeed. It’s probably a logical consequence of the fact that there is no real supreme art. The arts and crafts or decoration have always been a result of the central artistic idea.” F: Ist dekorative Kunst bzw. Mode Ausdruck einer jeweiligen verbindlichen Kunstidee? If you just look at baroque, rococo or the fashions of those eras, then I wonder: would it have been possible in the 18th or 19th century for people to consider wearing a suit and tie for a whole century? To thi

Diverse Einstellungen Ernst Fuchs und Assistenten arbeiten in der Offenbarungskapelle von St. Egidius in Klagenfurt. Schwenks auf Art Car Model.

F: Wie ist das Art Car in Ihrem Werk einzuordnen? “Theme-wise, the idea which was at the very beginning of the period which I now call “Firefox” had a very topical reference to me.” F: Warum benutzten Sie Ende der siebziger Jahre den Namen “Feuerfuchs”? At the time, my range had changed dramatically. It was a very special period. If I wanted to talk about its main characteristics, I would have to go back a long way. The unbroken colour is in the background and appears like a back light to a supreme light. To me, that was a revelation. This whole period lasted a long time during which I gave myself this name. “ F: Das Art Car stammt ebenfalls aus Ihrer “Feuerfuchs” – Periode? “The BMW design represents the beginning of that period. To me, that was very interesting work on an object…to practise what fire and supreme light really mean.” F: In welchem Zusammenhang mit den Hauptwerken der Feuerfuchsperiode steht der BMW? “If you look at the whole period, you’ll realize how well it fits in there and what the connection with the pieces of art of that period is. The most remarkable main piece of work in that context is a very large painting called “Dance With Death”. It depicts a danse macabre theme in front of a sky which resembles this one here with all these flames. There are…well…a good 50 paintings of that type - important pieces of work, that is - which have a close connection with the BMW design.” F: Spielt bei der Gestaltung des Autos die Idee von „Fuchs & Hase“ eine Rolle? My symbolism often deals with the contradiction of fox and hare. There is an important subject of mine, “Adam Mysticus”. Fox and hare meet at the precipice of the world. It’s where fox and hare say goodnight to each other – which depicts a truly deserted place. I am the firefox, and I say goodnight to the hare. That’s the incantation behind it, “May nothing like that ever happen.” F: Sie haben ein persönliches Erlebnis, dass die Flammen auf dem Auto erklärt. “To get out of a burning car – and this has in fact happened to me – is truly a relief. In that sense, it’s an incantation which has always been used. You have to use it, so that this fate doesn’t befall you.” F: Warum springt auf dem Art Car ein Hase über die Flammen? “That’s what we fear the most: you can drive as carefully and rule-abiding as you want to, but all of a sudden you have a crash. Why? Because of some deer or some hare or whatever running across the street. This can cause huge crashes. Unbelievable. This moment of surprise has been incorporated into the theme.” F: Wie reagiert eigentlich Ihre Familie auf Ihr Art Car ? “A few days ago, my youngest son Julian celebrated his 17th birthday. Boy, was he happy. “What a great car! You can really open everything and look inside! And the hood!” And then he saw the book which contained all the other models designed by other artists, and really passionately he said, “Dad, your BMW is the most beautiful one!” Of course, that’s a real joy.” F: Ihnen wird ein gewisses Faible für schöne Autos nachgesagt? This has always been nostalgia to me. I can remember the times when I walked through London barefoot – that was in the early 50s. I always said to myself, “If I ever have a lot of money, I’ll buy a Rolls Royce for sure.” And I did! I was amazed that the car wasn’t really as expensive as I had thought. Anyone can afford a second-hand model. Cheaper than a Mercedes-Benz. But it’s a much more beautiful car. Well, you probably shouldn’t say this too loud. Allegedly,

St. Egid außen, Ernst Fuchs betritt die Kapelle Kapelle innen, Ernst Fuchs erläutert Gestaltung der Kapelle: “The composition of the themes has been divided into the four directions. Eastern wall – Western Wall. They complement each other. God having become human, depicted here as the infant Jesus, as commonly pictured. In Chapter 12, it says, “A quarrel broke out in Heaven”. And the Cannibal was ejected from Heaven by Michael, the Archangel. So, that is basically the Eastern wall. It opposes the complementary Western wall, which depicts the Sacrificing of Isaac. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are the archfathers of the chosen people. Abraham is prepared to make the sacrifice. The Western wall depicts the rejection of the human sacrifice, i.e. the end of this cult era. Thus, it makes clear that the redeeming sacrifice – Christ – will take the part of the sacrificial lamb. All in all, those are complementary images. The Southern wall is dedicated to Paradise, while the Northern wall deals with Judgment Day. The Horsemen of the Apocalypse are joined by the fighter-bombers, the shuttle, etc.” Diverse Einstellungen Klagenfurt Fußgängerzone, St. Egidius außen

Dr. Cornelia Eibl - Curator Ernst Fuchs Retrospective Natural Sound Interview in German This car is the climax of a very important cycle in his life’s work, namely the “Firefox” cycle. In the 80s, he started to flood his paintings with mighty lightning bolts. No one in art history understood that step. He actually signed some of those paintings as “Firefox”. You have seen some of them in this exhibition. The BMW is the highlight from that era. It’s a lightning bolt in itself. The interesting thing is that during the time that he painted the car, an incredible dynamic force took hold of his paintings. He had been famous for static, quiet paintings, such as the Holy Paintings or the paintings from the “Danube School” – iconic and quiet. The painting of this car gave his paintings a momentum that you can still feel today.

Effektaufnahmen E. Fuchs Art Car im Studio