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| Roland Strasser (1895-1974) ‘Balinese mother and child’, signed lower left, canvas, 80 x 55 cm. € 20.000-30.000 |
Roland Strasser, son of sculptor Arthur Strasser, was an Austrian expressionist painter, draughtsman and watercolorist who was trained at the academy of arts in Vienna as well as the academy of arts in Munich, Germany. In Munich, where he studied from 1911 until 1915, he became a pupil of animal painter Angelo Jank. Austrian expressionism would highly influence his later Indonesian paintings. During World War I he was an official war painter of the Austrian army. After the war he also illustrated children`s books and made lithographs.
Furthermore, he was a traveler artist who visited China, Tibet, Mongolia and Japan with Dutch painter Willem Dooyewaard. The two artists had met in Indonesia where Strasser had moved to in 1920. Strasser taught Dooyewaard and they worked together often. There are very clear similarities and mutual influences to be detected in both painters’ works.
From 1935 until 1945, Strasser lived in Kintamani, Bali, with his wife. His works were shown at several exhibitions in Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya between 1921 and 1937. Major works of his depict the magic and beauty of the Far East with the dynamism of Austrian expressionism. After his time in Indonesia, he moved to London where he worked until 1952. He finally settled in Santa Monica, USA, where he died in 1974.
Provenance: Adriaan van Liere, a teacher from Kloetinge (Zeeland) who lived on Bali since World War I, friend of Strasser and Dooyewaard.
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| Roland Strasser (1895-1974) ‘Self portrait’ signed and dated 1920 lower left, oil or pastel on board, 48 x 38 cm. |
The shown paintings will be at auction on the 4th of June 2015.
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