Still Life with Onion Skin, undated

Ordinary onions are the motif of this still life by Josef Floch (1894–1977). A bowl, filled with four bulbs, is sitting on a white tablecloth with a red border. The table top is delimited by a dark, monochrome background. The artist directed the viewer’s gaze towards the onions, their skins and stalks, without offering any other objects or indications of the interior. Thus, he made the plain and unassuming the center of attention. Aside from landscapes, Floch, who was a graduate of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, primarily painted interiors and portraits. Throughout all the periods of his oeuvre, however, he always also created still lifes. Exploring painterly traditions seemed to him an important basis for his artistic development. In terms of his still lifes, he derived inspiration from the Dutch masters, as well as Paul Cézanne (1839–1906).

AK, 2023