Axl Leskoschek’s Years in Brazil

Axl von Leskoschek (1889-1976) was a painter, professor and one of the best known engravers in Austria and Europe. Before the threat of Nazism, he had to go into exile from his country: after a period in Switzerland, he moved to Brazil in 1940, country where he will remain for eight years and live through two revolution: a personal in relation to his art, and another in establishing the language of engraving that had to adapt to the Brazilian publishing market; he created illustrations for classical and modern Brazilian, Portuguese literature and over two hundred woodcuts for Brazilian editions of Dostoevsky’s novels.

In the show, curated by Peter Cohn and Joseph Neistein, there will be 160 of these works. The exhibition is traveling the world for over four decades already; originally presented in October 1973 at the Brazilian-American Cultural Institute in Washington (USA), also in the Gallery Group B in Rio de Janeiro in March 1974, and the Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado in São Paulo, including a retrospective in Vienna, now the exhibition will be presented at the Dan Galeria.

The exhibition will include Leskoschek’s 35 woodcuts that the artist created for the Brazilian editions of the works of Dostoyevsky, originally published by Editora José Olympio, and 130 woodcuts that he created at the beginning of his life in Brazil to works he created after his return to Europe, from 1948 until the mid-1970.