Sunflowers, 1905

For this colorful printed graphic work, the painter and graphic artist Franz von Zülow (1883–1963) availed himself of a motif that was highly popular in Classical Modernism – that of sunflowers. Famous sunflower depictions were not only created by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) but also by Austrian artists, including Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) and Egon Schiele (1890–1918). Sunflowers were often planted in cottage gardens, and Zülow seems to have chosen a detail from such a garden for this work. This can be inferred from the blue, white and red bell-shaped blossoms he captured alongside the yellow sunflowers. In terms of technique, the artist applied his papercut print process for which he would later take out a patent. This technique involved cutting out the actual motifs from a piece of paper and using the remaining bridges as “printing blocks”. Their imprint provided a black framework of lines, and Zülow subsequently colored the blank areas. He thus created expressive compositions reminiscent of medieval stained-glass windows.

MR, 2021