(Hall, Tyrol, 1910–2001 Vienna)
“Himmel-Rot”, signed, dated Weiler 88 as well as signed, dated and titled on the stretcher, Weiler 88 Himmel-Rot, egg tempera on canvas, 60 x 80 cm, on stretcher

The work will be included in the catalogue raisonné of Max Weilers paintings.

Provenance:
Private Collection, Linz

One and all. The later works.

... You could say that everything was left to do. This is because Weiler had been struggling with his internal vision of the unity of spirituality and nature since he started in the 1930s. He never “got to grips” with it – he could never get to grips with it. The further he went, the more fascinated he became. However, neither did a feeling of futility nor the experience of not having quite reached his goal take over in any way. Quite the opposite: as he aged, a late oeuvre began to flourish which has been rightly ascribed special qualities. For not only does this oeuvre mark out a phase of life, but it is testimony to a new confidence the artist attained. Weiler now reigned supreme over the tools and forms of expression developed over decades, in a manner both condensed and effortless. His mastery was combined with a deep-seated respect for nature, and the readiness to recognise its supremacy. Indeed, his art took a step back at any attempt to take hold of it or even act violently towards it. Above all, his mastery was enhanced by a treasure trove of experiences and memories. He began to develop a sense of his own biography: its peaks and troughs, the upturns and ordeals upon which he had reflected in his “Tag- und Nachthefte” [Day and Night Notebooks]. He grew to realise the extent to which his paintings contained memories of nature gathered from childhood onwards. The paradise of early childhood, and the paradise of nature in bloom – were they not two halves of the same experience? …
Gottfried Boehm, Der Maler Max Weiler, Das Geistige in der Natur, 2nd edition, 2010