Images:

The New Constructivism of Werner Horvath

"Your work is a fever dream, standing between the three world's of Picasso, Dali, and Monet.

Every time I look at it, it takes my breath away.

Thank you for seeking and finding both truth and beauty from within the human spirit."

Hsing Lee, art collector, Vancouver / Canada

Werner Horvath: "John Lennon - Peace Altar". Oil on wood, 100 x 261cm, 2006/07.

Click on the symbols to see the following selections of paintings:

 2025: 

 2024: 

 2023: 

 2022: 

Here you can find a sophisticated portrait of the philosopher Immanuel Kant; "Invidia (=envy"), Avaritia (=greed) and Acedia (=sloth), three of the 7 Deadly Sins, a portrait of Monet and the recently finished  wine label edition.

 2021:

"The Riddle of the Sphinx", the mythological "Cassandra", the deadly sin "Pride" and more work in progress.

 2020:
"Medusa", a scene of Greek mythology, the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, his vision of "Natural State" and his role in French Revolution. Two illustrations of poems by Leonard Cohen and Ernst Jandl.

 2019:
The painting "Gula (=Gluttony) is part of the series about 7 Deadly Sins, as well as "Ira (=Anger)"). The series about eyes start with "Falco's Eyes", followed by "Frida Kahlo's Eyes". A very personal painting including a self portrait of the artist is entitled "Jealousy".

 2018:
The painting "The Plague - Pandora and Epimetheus" completes the triptych about the Titans and builds another bridge between art and science. About Greek philosophy: "Aristotle - The Golden Middle" and a portrait of "Plato". Two works on paper  serve as illustrations of poems: "Day", about a poem of Arthur Rimbaud, and "Night" about a poem of Savannah VokinsNoyes.

 2017:
One more painting of the series about being ill: Occupational Diseases.  Modern Prometheus is chained to the bottle and Atlas is tired... A "Golden Marilyn", John Lennon, Mahatma Gandhi, Sigmund Freud -  they all are present again.
A rare work on paper: Bertha von Suttner and the first World War.

 2016:
A portrait of the frontman of the Rolling Stones, filled up with symbols and allusions: "Mick Jagger" - and also the second painting of a member of the Rolling Stones:  Keith Richards, his drugs and inspirations". The Rolling Stones Triptych is completed by a portrait of Brian Jones, and it is called "The Holy Trinity".  Very sophisticated: The pre-Socratic philosopher Empedocles and his theory of the four elements.

 2015:
One more image of the illness-series:"Fears and Neuroses". The LEGO composition and the painting "What children play", created for the exhibition "What children play" in the Peace Museum Vienna, concerning the Red Hand Day, the international day against the use of child soldiers. A portrait of Martin Luther King entitled "I have a Dream" and a portrait of Anne Frank, one of Bertha von Suttner and some others.

 2014:
Poorness as a risk factor: "Deficiency Diseases", a large size painting and an acrylic sketch for it (a tumor), are the first paintings of this year.  Three months later followed "Art meets Science - Tropical Diseases". For the Peace Museum Vienna a portrait of Nelson Mandela was created, and also "Lay down your arms!" - a portrait of the young Bertha von Suttner. A second version of the Kreisky picture of 2012 replaces the stolen artwork in the Landhaus in Linz.

 2013:
Prosperity as a risk factor: "Life Style Diseases", a large size painting of 2013. My Demons, a self portrait containig all the illnesses of the artist. Watched, another self portrait, shaping the side wings of the Self Portrait Triptych of Werner Horvath.  Pop stars, who died of drugs: Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix and Whitney Houston. Of common interest: a constructivist portrait of Bruno Kreisky, the famous Austrian politician and a portrait of Friedrich Nietzsche: God is dead.

 2012:
For Werner Horvath this year is the year of the Greek pre-Socratic philosophers: Portriats of  Heraclitus of Ephesus, Pythagoras of Samos, Democritus, Parmenides of Elea, Thales of Miletus, Zeno of Elea and Archimedes of Syracuse are the result. "Pain" is a selfportrait of the artist, followed by some paintings in surreal style, Horvath's "World of Medicine" and a constructivist portrait of the economist "John Maynard Keynes" 

 2011:
The first painting in the year 2011 displays the economist John Kenneth Galbraith, it is part of the economist-series of Werner Horvath. But there are more things that happen in our world at the moment, eg. the nuclear catastrophe in Japan and the revolution in Libya - and Horvath portrays "Qaddafi and the Revolution". Too strong 4U? Then look at the good guys at "The Surgeon Theodor Billroth and the Psychiatrist Sigmund Freud", the most famous physicians of Austria.

 2010:
A brand new altar in the net now - the Arnold-Schwarzenegger-Altar. The outer wings portray Arnie as body-builder and as terminator, the middle part as governor (also available as beer-mat!). Another very important work of Werner Horvath displays the ecological catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico: "Gulf of Mexico Oil Disaster". Besides you can also view a new Che Guevara- portrait entitled Demons of Revolution and a portrait of the English philosopher John Locke. Last but not least a special tribute to the work of the famous painter Henri Rousseau: Horvath's painting Rousseau's Dream.

 2009:
In 2009 the Austrian city Linz will be Cultural Capital of Europe, and Werner Horvath, born and living in Linz, has planned a lot of projects for this purpose. One of them is presented on February 5th in the Arcotel Nike, and it will bring a lot of beermats to hotels, restaurants, cafes and bars of Linz. But besides he doesn't want to forget to paint and created two pictures concerning the worldwide financial crisis: portraits of the economists Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes, including also some of their theories. The triptych "Death and the Maiden" , not totally finished now, will be a culmination of the year 2009.

 2008:
In 2009 Linz in Austria will be Cultural Capital of Europe (together with Vilnius). The artist Werner Horvath, born and living in Linz, is preparing for this event. He has worked out some projects: One of them is a Comment on a war memorial on the westside of the Castle of Linz by two large pictures. He wants to create special beer-mats for the European Capital of Culture 2009, and to show an installation consisting of these beer-mats called "From Part to the Whole" in the Castle of Puchenau near Linz. He has also created the large painting "Linz - Cultural Capital of Europe 2009", which deals with historical facts concerning the city. Complementary he created the paintings "Design-Center" for the Linz AG and "Nike of Samothrace" for the hotel-group Arcotel Nike, to be printed on beer-mats in 2009 too. Last but not least there is a portrait of the Roman emperor and philosopher Marc Aurel, which continues the series of portraits of philosophers.

 2007:
The year 2007 started with the painting " Clash of Civilizations V - Kim Yong Il", the dictator of North Corea. But the main work is without any doubt the "John Lennon - Peace Altar", which was finished this year. A very impressive picture depicts the victim of Nationalsocialism Anne Frank. The painting "John F. Kennedy" (version 2) is part of the series about American presidents. The Egypt actress Hind Rustum is a famous sex symbol of the 50s in the Arab world and can be seen as a legend. On the contrary idols of the western world: "Jim Morrison" and "The Death and Jim Morrison", followed by  "Give Peace a Chance", four digital prints celebrating the peace-activist John Lennon. Werner Horvath painted his daughter Nina again, she has grown up to a beautiful woman. A drawing, created on the island of Madeira and depicting Marilyn, is the last image of this year at the moment.

 2006:
To be continued: " Clash of Civilizations IV - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Iran". And on the contrary: The peace-image  "John Lennon - Imagine" and the middle-part of a new "Peace-Altar", recently created on the island of Crete (Greece). The image "Charles Robert Darwin - Evolution" is a political image too and very sophisticated. Also created in 2006: "A Tribute to Franz Marc - the Tiger" and a new Marilyn.

 2005:
Recently finished:  the Kastellos-Altar, a giant work which took two years for realisation, and "Liberty", a painting designed to be a poster for the exhibition of the "Austrian Society for Medicine and Arts" in autumn 2005 in Vienna. The image "Friedrich Nietzsche - the Three Metamorphoses" completes a composition of 100 oil-paintings, each of them 50 x 40 cm in size; this composition ("War and Peace") has been created by Werner Horvath during the years 1992 - 2005. You can also find the great constructivist Ernst von Glasersfeld in this 2005-section.  Or do you prefer a  sophisticated portrait of the Austrian Noble-Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek titled "The Piano Teacher", Arnold Schwarzenegger as Terminator, "Destruction" (two paintings depicting Osama bin Laden and George W.Bush) and a picture completing the Fall-of-Communism-series: "Life and Death of Nicolai Ceausescu"? A special design for the 4th International Art-Festival in Chania 2006 is the painting "Roses for Marilyn Monroe", and another special design for an outcoming book ("Diana in Art" by Mem Mehmet) is the picture "Roses for Diana". Finally you can see also "Marlene Dietrich, World War II and Dresden"  -  and a portrait of Voltaire.

 2004:
The painting "George Bush Killing Freedom" is a very critical one.  "Remembering Albrecht Duerer", a real masterpiece, was created at the beginning of the year 2004. Then a critical portrait of the Nobel prize winner Julius Wagner-Jauregg,  because the discovery that Wagner-Jauregg wanted to be a member of the Nazi party has shocked Austria. And another infamous "scientist": SS-doctor Josef Mengele! Presented for the first time: the Kastellos-Altar, at this time a work in progress.

 2003:
"Clash of Civilizations III: Saddam Hussein", the brandnew image from the series. Muammar Qaddafi, the Libyan leader;  "One Squaremater of Leninism and Stalinism", Mozart as a Freemason, Bob Marley, Sigmund Freud, a painting dealing with the history of the Congo and a drawing of Che Guevara, done at Tenerife-island.

 2002:
The most important works done in 2002: "Spiral of Violence I and II": Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat. You can also see "The Garden of Revolution: Che Guevara", its contrary "The Garden of Peace", the Russian leader Stalin, the philosophers Socrates and Niccolo Machiavelli, Sigmund Freud in "Garden of the Subconscious" and a young Marilyn Monroe.

2001:
The main-works of this year are without any doubt the "Clash of Civilizations"-series: George W.Bush and Osama bin Laden. "Che Guevara" , Gaddhafi and the Wallerts and the philosophers Sir Charles Popper("Three Worlds" and "Plato's Fall and the Falsification", Thomas Hobbes and David Hume. Or are you looking for Darth Vader and Darth Maul? - You find them here! Additional you can see Sigmund Freud, Nikos Kazantzakis and a self portrait of the artist.

2000:
Political paintings like "Vladimir Putin (Chechnya II)" or Benito Mussolini , Mao and Karl Marx. But you can also find Darth Vader and James Dean. Or do you prefer Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer?

1999:
1999-works of the artist: "In the Jungle of Communism" and a painting dealing with the situation on the Balkans: "Smart Bombs and Sexy Guns." You can also see portraits of Marilyn Monroe, the philosophers John Locke , Thomas Hobbes and Niccolo Machiavelli, the Saint Benedict Menni and finally a Pomegranate, the symbol of the Brothers of St. John of God.

 1998:
A transparent Lenin, Lenin and Stalin formed by skulls, Princess Diana, Leonardo di Caprio.... and Nina, the daughter of the artist.

 1997:
You can find Marilyn Monroe, Salvador Dali, Karl Marx, Lenin, Arthur Schopenhauer and the saints of the Brothers of St.John of God.

 1996:
Vincent van Gogh, Marilyn Monroe,  Laokoon, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brechnev, Gorbachev, Yeltsin and the philosopher Paul Watzlawick are shown in this section.

 1995:
This show includes Vaclav Havel, Jaques Chirac, Lenin, Stalin, Yeltsin, Adolf Hitler, Mao, Robert Koch, Albert Schweitzer, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain, as well as variations of paintings of Botticelli and Michelangelo.

 1994:
Here you can find Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, the surgeon Theodor Billroth, Marilyn Monroe, variations on Mona Lisa and Klimt's Kiss, Friedrich Nietzsche, Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker, Mao, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.

 1993:
You can see John.F. Kennedy, George Bush, Bill Clinton, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Anthony Perkins, Rock Hudson, Freddy Mercury, Rudolf Nurejev, Saddam Hussein, Khomeini, Adolf Hitler and the burning house in Solingen, Milosevic, Karadzic, Lenin, Gorbachev and Yeltsin.

 1992:
This part shows paintings of the Greek period of the artist, his first political paintings (Karl Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Waldheim) and reflections about atomic power and evolution.

 1969-1991:
Here you can find some examples of early works of the artist. The development of his style from Phantastic Realism to New Constructivism is documented.

 Series :
During the years 1992 to 2005 (and some minor changes in 2010) Werner Horvath has created a composition, consisting of 100 oil-paintings, each of them 50 x 40 cm in size. The work is called "War and Peace" and you can see it here in total and in detail.

Werner Horvath: ""The Plague - Pandora and Epimetheud". Oil on canvas, 70 x 100 cm, 2017/18.

Mainpage - Biography - Exhibitions

New: Museum-grade canvas prints of Horvath's paintings, individually stretched over a wooden frame, on Saatchi online