Alfred Zoff

TheFascination of the Sea

A project by Galerie Martin Suppan

monograph • catalogue raisonné • exhibition

Solo Show at the ART & ANTIQUE Art Fair
8.-18. April 2022
Salzburger Residenz
Booth 28

Galerie Martin Suppan
Palais Coburg, Seilerstätte 3c, 1010 Vienna
14 - 23 December 2021 | TUE - FR 12 - 18, SA 11 - 17
January & March 2022 only by appointment (Dr. Claudia Suppan: 06645421468)

“.....I work a lot, but again I realised that it is only a disadvantage to stay too short at a place of study. One becomes a robber of nature and yet does not take the best....." Alfred Zoff, 1912

Departure and homecoming - two opposing and yet complementary longings of human life - shaped the artistic biography of the important Austrian mood impressionist Alfred Zoff to a great extent. Tirelessly travelling, always on the hunt for light, sky, idyllic countryside and surf, the Graz-born artist nevertheless always returned home with countless motifs in his luggage, thus combining his preference for painting in the great outdoors with his innovative work. He completed his nature studies in the studio or used them as sketches for precise, finished, large-format oil paintings that were created for exhibitions and collectors. Thus Zoff's clients for his outstanding marine and coastal paintings included the "Who's Who" of society at the time, entrepreneurs, aristocrats and art collectors, above all Emperor Franz Josef, a great lover of his paintings, whom Zoff was to meet personally in 1895. The Emperor acquired a total of 8 paintings, including the first purchase in 1884, "Pontafel - Große Landschaft mit Staffage", which is still owned by the Universalmuseum Joanneum and is on loan in the current Zoff retrospective.
Thirty years after the first monograph with a catalogue raisonné of Alfred Zoff's works, a new publication with a revised and expanded biography and a new overview of his works, with over 1800 oil paintings and works on paper, was published in November 2021.
The current project is complemented by an extensive retrospective at the Galerie Martin Suppan in the Palais Coburg, with over 100 works from all of the artist's creative periods, the majority of which are for sale and have never before been shown in the trade.
Until today, Zoff's paintings have been exhibited repeatedly, but still far too little, although his work represents an essential part within Austrian landscape painting in general and he marines in particular. The current exhibition now once again provides a detailed insight into Alfred Zoff's life's work and repositions the artist in the 21st century.

"Alfred Zoff's seascapes and coastal landscapes are among the best in Austrian painting. No other painter achieved such mastery and persuasiveness in rendering the various manifestations and movements of the sea as he did." Peter Peer, 2014

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Exhibition video

Installation views

Works