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Parisian Head, 1951

Leopold Museum,
Vienna © Bildrecht,
Vienna 2025
India ink on paper
34.3×21.2 cm

Artists

  • Josef Pillhofer

    (Vienna 1921–2010 Vienna)

Unfortunately not on display at the moment
Josef Pillhofer (1921–2010) once said that “the constructive element is the basic prerequisite for drawing”. The artist began his series of works known as “Head Studies” during his time in Paris in 1950/51, and continued working on them in subsequent years in Vienna. This central interest in the shape of the head, set apart from the torso, which is regarded as the seat of the spirit and the intellect, was shared by many other artists, including Fritz Wotruba (1907–1975) and Joannis Avramidis (1922–2016). The essential motivation was to bring about a detachment from visible reality, and to convey the typical and universal. Some of the drawings created in Paris reveal a Cubist dissection of the face. The process of simplification, and with it the exploration of the essence of the head form, were Pillhofer’s central themes.

Text Leopold Museum, 2021

Object data

Artist/author
  • Josef Pillhofer
Title
Parisian Head
Date
1951
Art movement
Art after 1945
Category
Graphic work
Material​/technique
India ink on paper
Dimensions
34.3×21.2 cm
Signature
Signed and dated lower right: J. Pillhofer 1951
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Donation S. Tabaka-Pillhofer
Inventory access
Accession 2021
Selection of Reference works
  • Josef Pillhofer. Im Dialog mit Künstlern der Moderne, hrsg. von Hans-Peter Wipplinger, Köln 2021 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 18.06.2021-10.10.2021).
Keywords
headabstract ideas/concepts

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Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

Josef Pillhofer, Wien (1951);
Susanna Tabaka-Pillhofer (bis 2021); (1)
Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (seit 2021)

  1. Archiv des Leopold Museums, Schenkungsvertrag Nr. 4621 vom 13.12.2021

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Search in collection

headabstract ideas/concepts

2023/2024 Partial funding for digitization by the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport „Kulturerbe digital“ as part of NextGenerationEU.