Starting out in Philadelphia with Soft Canvas Painting in the early 70's - draped, a sort of game of consequences, energetic, the end result of a process which in itself represents a system - I was related to the intrinsic values of Abstract Expressionism, not to any one style in particular. Still learning about the country, I learnt about Pop, about the American Experience. I was greatly impressed by Oldenburg, who struck me as the most "canvassy" painter. But I was not going into the direction of sculpture. After the various styles of the 70's I could see innovation only tendentiously "for innovation's sake". I felt the urge to free myself from pressure, of any justification by ideological burden. Doing became imperative. I have always been a painter, and the characteristics of the medium, the craving for colour and gesture, the sensuality of the whole are most important to me. Back in Vienna "gnawing at my roots", I became more narrative, and consequently more figurative. There were periods, that followed earlier styles though, like Pure Abstraction or Conceptual Art. I always fetch back something. With the Portrait I became totally figurative, which I had never intended, the traditional rendering seemed empty and dead to me. But the Portrait became an obsession: Often I realize, that people become nervous when I look at them. The urge to paint is probably also compensation for childhood trauma: permanent punishment in school and progressive isolation. The path leading to pure figuration was not the usual one: looking for a clear language which allows the unconscious, the intuitive. Works of other artists often touch me, but they have not been influencing me for a long time - they are too finished, too wrapped up to draw inspiration from - rather a book or a rock concert will do it. Most ideas spring from the unconscious, they disappear, and appear again on the surface, seemingly transformed. During the serious illness of my father until his death, I did a series of portraits, leading to an intimate language, not only spiritualizing our relationship, but allowing new interpretation of the UNTERMALUNGEN. Curiosity about the works of others, even only peripherically touching, meant fascination for me always. The presence of the model while painting, however, disturbs me. The person obscures my view. They may be nervous or bored - they are merely useful when needed for anatomical information. The flatness of the photographs, the captivated moment, the unconscious and cutting intuition are the challenge for a new illusion of reality. Nothing is left to chance, everything is under control, tight strokes as well as broad passages with a loaded brush. Props are of marginal importance, space isn't there at all. A certain mannerism is evident in all my work, from the elongated shapes and "Ingres" colours of my Soft Canvas to today's Portrait. No wonder, since I spent the sunday mornings of my early youth in the rooms of the mannerists of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. My gallery is actually a showroom in the heart of Vienna, a permanent show of new work. Without announcement or information, without comment I show big portraits of publicly known people, preferably DINOSAURS. Sometimes, when word gets around, they come and look. Very often secretly, I hear.