Online - Modern and Contemporary Art Hinko Smrekar o. T. (Monster devours Vienna). 1925. pen and black ink on smooth, marbled paper. 32 x 27.8 cm (43.7 x 27.3 cm). Signed and dated. Mounted in spots on support and under passepartout and framed. - Very slight traces of soiling, some creases, verso somewhat fingerstained and with brown stains in the corners. Overall in good condition. Karel Dobida, Slovenian Biography 10, 1967 - The Slovenian painter and graphic artist Hinko Smrekar is known today primarily as a caricaturist of the grotesque and as a "master of pen and ink drawing" (Dobida). Between 1902 and 1911, Smrekar lived and worked intermittently in Vienna, where he attended the Imperial and Royal School of Arts and Crafts run by Josef Hoffmann and Kolo Moser, among others. He co-founded a Pan-Slavic artists' group called "Vesna" and became friends with the Slovenian national poet Ivan Cankar, for whose works Smrekar was to create numerous illustrations. - This drawing in pen and black ink from 1925 bears witness to an ambivalent relationship with the city of his artistic training: it shows a one-legged, giant monster in a boot that is sucking up and devouring Viennese buildings (including St Stephen's Cathedral, the State Opera House, the Giant Ferris Wheel and City Hall). The northern edge of the city with Kahlenberg, Leopoldsberg and Bisamberg can be seen in the background, with the Danube and a bridge in between. In the centre of the depiction are two empty craters, while the Vienna Woods are indicated on the left. - The drawing is reminiscent of the motifs of Smrekar's major graphic work "Spiegel der Welt", a "shocking confession about the monstrous delusions, passions and madness of modern human society during the reign of Hitlerism in Germany". (Dobida) Pen-and-ink drawing in black on smooth, marbled paper. Signed and dated. Punktually mounted on mat and under mat, as well as framed. - Very little soiling, with minor traces of handling, verso in the corners somewhat finger-stained and with small brown spots. Overall very good. - The Slovenian painter and graphic artist Hinko Smrekar is known today primarily as a caricaturist of the grotesque and as a 'master of pen and ink drawing' (Dobida). Between 1902 and 1911, Smrekar lived and worked intermittently in Vienna, where he attended the K.k. Kunstgewerbeschule run by Josef Hoffmann and Kolo Moser, among others. He co-founded a Pan-Slavic artists' group called 'Vesna' and became friends with the Slovenian national poet Ivan Cankar, for whose works Smrekar was to create numerous illustrations. - This drawing in pen and black ink from 1925 bears witness to an ambivalent relationship with the city of his artistic training: it shows a one-legged, giant monster in a boot that is sucking up and devouring Viennese buildings (including St Stephen's Cathedral, the State Opera House, the Giant Wheel and the City Hall). The northern edge of the city with Kahlenberg, Leopoldsberg and Bisamberg can be seen in the background, with the Danube and a bridge in between. There are two empty craters in the centre of the depiction and the Vienna Woods are indicated on the left. - The drawing is reminiscent of the motifs of Smrekar's Major graphic work, the cycle 'Spiegel der Welt', a 'shocking confession about the monstrous delusions, passions and madness of modern human society during the reign of Hitlerism in Germany'. (Dobida) 400