(Innsbruck 1932–2011 Vienna)
“Maremma 17.1985”, signed, dated Prachensky 85 as well as titled on the reverse (on the stretcher), acrylic on canvas, 130 x 165 cm, framed

Full-page colour illustration:
Markus Prachensky, Löcker Verlag, Vienna 1990, plate 92, registered p. 211

Provenance:
Private Collection, Germany

MAREMMA
The Maremma is integral to Etruria both in terms of Italy‘s geography and Prachensky‘s painting. As a consequence of its marshes, some stretching far inland from the coast, this region was originally notorious for mal aria, the fever believed to have been carried by foul air. Large areas of the region were constantly drained, particularly successfully under the Austrian Grand Duke of Tuscany and later Emperor Leopold ll whose memorial in front of Grosseto cathedral shows him lovingly lifting up a woman, the symbol of the Maremma. Today this is fertile land, extending from Grosseto to the pineta, the large pine forest by the sea, and surrounded by a chain of small hills amongst which lies the aforementioned mountain village of Vetulonia...

The Maremma series is, in itself, just as varied as Etruria orizzontale, although it seems that the difference between the Indian ink drawings and the acrylic paintings is perhaps even bigger here, the range of variation, on the whole, even greater. This may lie - in contrast to the regional delimitation that the title suggests - in the fact that the decisive influences for the series can be traced back far beyond the Maremma and even as far as Apulia…

Maremma synthesises a preoccupation of many years standing together with ever-new impressions, it is not only all of Etruria and a memory of Apulia, but also the entire Markus Prachensky. And he is concerned with images above all.
Wolfgang Fleischer, from the aforementioned literature