(Innsbruck 1932–2011 Vienna)
“Etruria Blues - 21 – 1982”, signed, dated Prachensky 82 and on the reverse titled, signed, dated Markus Prachensky 1982, acrylic on canvas, 175 x 130 cm, on stretcher, (K)

Compare:
Markus Prachensky, published by Löcker, Vienna 1990, ill. 77, 78, 79

Provenance:
From an Austrian Collection - directly from the artist

... Blues no longer refers to the music that Prachensky played while painting. For many years now he has been listening to classical music rather than jazz. ‘Blues’ describes instead the new blue, a very rare colour in his oeuvre (I can only think of Berlin, Gumpendorf and Vienna). It’s not a light blue, like before, but one which is deep and lustrous, as you’d see in an April sky between the scattered white clouds. Now this blue appears primarily in the upper elements of the painting, on the “roofs”, but we can’t talk of a sky; besides, it can equally appear in the vertical beams in the lower third of the painting. I mention this example because I believe it demonstrates particularly clearly how little an origin can be an interpretation, instead how it can become a freely available element in a picture’s composition; it remains present without being assigned a particular meaning. These are bright paintings with a compact power of expression. Added to this are the – at least for Prachensky – incredibly broadened palette of colours: apart from the new and unusual blue, two red tones, brown and green, and the yellow has been given a warm tone, often supplemented with orange. What this produces is far beyond any wistfulness (which Prachensky once alluded to in a discussion); here the sun shines over Etruria. ...
Wolfgang Fleischer, from the above literature.