(born 1932 in Innsbruck) „Etruria meridionale-III-1981“, signed, dated Prachensky 81, and on the reverse titled, signed and dated Markus Prachensky 1981, acrylic on canvas, laid down on homogenous board, 100 x 75 cm, (K)

ETRURIA MERIDIONALE The next journey took Prachensky through all of Etruria once again; yet this time the highlight of the journey was Norchia. Sadly I only know of the two monumental temple tombs – larger than all the other Etruscan tombs – from Markus’s descriptions; they had decayed, were overgrown, and almost reclaimed by nature, just as the tombs of San Guiliano. Prachensky told of his fascination in seeing how here the traces of older cultures were slowly transformed back into nature. The colours in the Etruria meridionale series of 1981 are the same as those of the previous year; the upright columns are lower and ordered almost symmetrically around the centre of the painting, with the tension created between the colours serving to soften this effect. In the space above, which takes up roughly three-quarters of the area of the painting, is a large triangle or rectangle, partly with simple, partly with double columns. Here the overall dynamism of the Etruria series gives way to a deeper calm, one I could well imagine in the overgrown and rocky valley at Norchia. Wolfgang Fleischer, Markus Prachensky, Published by Löcker, Vienna 1990