Monday, August 26, 2013

Really Old Old-School Artist: E.R. Vogenauer

During my typical extended digging through Archive.org, I came across another really old old-school artist. Today's featured artist, Ernst Rudolf Vogenauer, I found by way of a German-language version of The Nibelungenlied. This particular edition was published around 1920, and the influence of Expressionism (and the Germans' love for it) is more than a little obvious. Compare Vogenauer's style to somebody like Willy Pogany, whose work is characterized by the fluidity of Art Nouveau, which was happening in France and England concurrently with that heavy-handed expressionist stuff from (mainly) Germany. But that's what I like about Vogenauer's stuff here... the weight, and the violence! (Look at that spear through the body illustration!)

Of all the folks I've featured as part of this series, I think Vogenauer's work is the closest stylistic predecessor of a lot of current OSR illustration (think Stefan Poag).



2 comments:

  1. The style reminds me of early 20th century political cartoons, or WPA art.

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  2. I just found my way here by accident. Thanks for finding this artist hero! I love these drawings!

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