Florian Prünster
Italy
To see humans as unique creations, to reflect humans within their individual personality and facets in portrait, to purposefully carve out their emotions. That’s Florian Prünster’s art’s specialty: The South Tyrolean autodidact is notably unique in giving the portrayed an endless amount of charisma and in the meanwhile being able to look “behind the façade”.
The artist started off with oil painting, though changed to the art of portraits after he discovered his fondness for graphic realism. There he proves an excellent “signature” with pencil, charcoal and Pierre Noire on high-quality drawing paper. He holds the absolute gift, to realise outstanding portraits in precise and still sensible strokes.
His artistic approach lies in the pursuit of perfection of human-physiognomic depiction and the reflection of the beauty of the creative nature in its stellar precision. The artist’s eye for the smallest nuances of the sujet is admirable, as he sets with filigree technique an absolute hyperrealism. Something which is not achieved by many, especially not in the field of drawing. “Hyperrealism” – a bit of a bulky term – is the name of an art-form which only few fine artists truly master. Drawing is overall a fundamentally different genre as painting, most notably in the black-white-technique of Florian Prünster. In his portraits, we find every strand of hair, every eye lash and the necessary wrinkles in correct accurate depiction, as we’re nor-
mally not looking for them, or to be more exact, as we mostly overlook them. His portraits always mirror the character and condition of the person, as well as their moods. He lets the viewer gaze into the portrayed’s soul. Most importantly are the eyes though, in his opinion, to give the portrayed an interesting and lively expression to, f. ex.: depict their life course and experienced emotional circumstances, which “left their mark”. Faces always tell tales!
Quiet remarkably is the dedication of the artist until the likeness turns out the way he imagines: Countless hours on only a single artwork. He is particularly fascinated by the combination and possible applications of his tools, pencil, coal and Pierre Noire -a crayon of incomparable tenderness to achieve the reoccurring of this special effect in all of his drawings. He derives his inspiration from daily life, on the streets and anywhere else where he is able to encounter and observe people. He is fascinated by depicting humans authentically in their natural way, no matter the age, nor gender. He showcases his incomparable art regularly at international art fairs, e.g. the ARTMUC in Munich and the EUROPARTFAIR in Amsterdam.
Florian Prünster can thereby not deny his individual personality, his open, righteous character inside his paintings. In drawing he echoes perfection, but also the unavoidable imperfection, for instance in the human visage. Free, open and distinct, as it corresponds to his nature. Every finished image, every well-made drawing, every interpretation is Florian Prünster himself. He personifies the determined, versatile artisan, strict with himself until completeness –but modest in demeanour.
Hats off!!
Günter Weiler
Artist and Author
* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 16th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.
