MASTERPIECES FROM THE BEN URI COLLECTION
MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY (1906-1996) CIRCUS SCENE
MARIE-LOUISE VON MOTESICZKY
Marie-Louise von Motesiczky’s evocative painting of a circus performer surrounded by ponies exemplifies her mature expressionist style, rooted in allegory and psychological insight Rendered in gestural, painterly strokes and a palette dominated by velvety blacks, ochres, and luminous greens, the scene captures a mom-
ent of performative spectacle tinged with surreal introspection. The central female figure, adorned in a feathered headdress, orchestrates a ring of white ponies whose stylized forms echo the theatricality and artifice of the circus environment. The dramatic lighting and elliptical composition recall the influence of Max Beckmann, Motesiczky’s early mentor, while the emotive colouration and dreamlike atmosphere evoke the work of Oskar Kokoschka, her later artistic touchstone in England Painted during her long exile in Britain following her flight from Nazi-occupied Austria, this work reflects Motesiczky’s continued exploration of identity, displacement, and the performance of self The circus an enduring motif in modernist visual culture becomes, in her hands, a metaphor for the fragility of public presentation and private containment The expressive distortion of form and the dense layering of pigment are characteristic of her wider practice, which often probes the tension between surface and depth This painting resonates as both social commentary and personal allegory, demonstrating Motesiczky’s singular position within 20th-century émigré art history
Marie-Louise von Motesiczky was born in Vienna, Austria, into a wealthy Viennese Jewish family on 24 October 1906 She left school at the age of 13 to study art privately, attending art classes in Vienna, The Hague, Frankfurt, Paris, and Berlin and, in 1927/8, was invited by Max Beckmann whom she had first met (when she was a teenager) to join his master class at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main - he became the most significant artistic influence on her early work Following the Anschluss (Nazi annexation of Austria) on 12 March 1938, the artisttogether with her mother, Henriette, and her childhood nanny - fled to Holland the following day (her brother, Karl, who remained behind perished in Auschwitz in 1943); she held her first exhibition at The Hague in 1939, leaving for London shortly afterwards. Motesiczky remained in England for the rest of her life. She maintained friendships among the émigré network, particularly with the writer Elias Canetti (who also became her lover) and Oskar Kokoschka - the most important influence on her work in England - as well as sculptor Mary Duras and graphic artist Milein Cosman
In 1943, she joined the Artists’ International Association (AIA), with whom she exhibited, also showing at the Czechoslovak Institute, London in 1944 She held solo exhibitions in The Hague and Amsterdam (1952), the Städtische Galerie, Munich (1954), the Beaux Arts Gallery, London (1960), and in Vienna, Linz, Bremen and Munich (1966); a major retrospective was held at the Goethe Institute, London, to great critical acclaim in 1985; followed by another at the Österreichische Galerie im Belvedere in Vienna in 1994 Her oeuvre encompassed portraiture (including latterly many moving portraits of her ageing mother), self-portraits, still-lifes and allegorical paintings Marie-Louise von Motesiczky died in London, England on 10 June 1996 Important posthumous exhibitions were held at Tate Liverpool (2006) and in Vienna (2008), and a catalogue raisonée by Ines Schlenker was published in 2009 In 2009 Motesiczky's work was included in the survey exhibition Forced Journeys: Artists in Exile in Britain, c 1933-45 at Ben Uri Gallery, as well at the exhibition, Out of Autria, marking the 80th anniversary of the Anchluss, in 2018. Her work is held in numerous UK collections including the Fitzwilliam, Cambridge; the National Portrait Gallery; the Southbank Centre and Tate
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
COLLECTION: https://benuri org/collections/
BURU: https://www buru org uk/
