HUGO PUCK DACHINGER - Das Feuer des Tanzes
The exhibition titled “The Fire of Dance” shows how Dachinger masterfully captured both the lightness of dance and the intimacy of the human body. Between line, light, and incisions, a multifaceted image of modernism in exile unfolds. At the center of the show are depictions of dancers and nudes, supplemented by selected early and late works that complete the overall picture of his artistic output.
His works glow with energy, whether in the images of dancers—where every turn and leap is carried over in flowing dynamism—or in his sensitive nude studies, in which the human body becomes visible in its raw and direct presence. Both groups of motifs—dance and nude—reflect Dachinger’s fascination with the human body, its forms, movements, and expressive power. He developed a unique technique of scratching and engraving, which he incorporated into his painting. Through this deliberate incising of lines and shapes, additional layers, subtle light effects, and narrative depth emerge, giving his figures an extraordinary presence. These incision marks bring movement to life, open spaces between reality and imagination, and intensify the emotional impact of his works.
Hugo Puck Dachinger is considered an important pioneer of exile art. In 1938, he escaped the Anschluss and made his way to London via Denmark. In 1940, he was interned as an enemy alien. While imprisoned on the Isle of Man, he organized the exhibition “Art Behind Barbed Wire.” This show contributed to his release and to his recognition as an artist in England. Together with other artists living in exile, he represented the idea of an international language of modernism. During the war, he exhibited in major London galleries, among others with Picasso, Kokoschka, Braque, Klee, Ernst, Schwitters, and De Chirico. Through his experience as an exiled artist who felt affiliated neither with the English nor with the Austrian art scene, his work developed in a unique parallelism of the formal vocabulary of the international avant-garde and the Austrian tradition of painterly Expressionism.
