Memorial in the Park, 1908

The painter and graphic artist Franz von Zülow (1883–1963) created this printed graphic work in 1908. Zülow attended the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt [Training and Research Institute of Graphic Arts] in Vienna and studied as a guest student at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts under Christian Griepenkerl (1839–1916) as well as at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts under Felician Myrbach (1853–1940), Koloman Moser (1868–1918) and Carl Otto Czeschka (1878–1960). He joined the Vienna Secession in 1908. Already in 1907, Zülow had taken out a patent for the technique of hand-colored papercut prints devised by him, for which the motif is cut from a piece of paper. The stencils thus created are then colored and printed in reverse. As opposed to conventional stencil techniques, the depiction is not determined by the cut-out forms but rather by the remaining bridges. These form a net of black outlines, while the blank areas in between are colored by hand. The resulting images are thus reminiscent of medieval stained-glass windows.

MR, 2021