Artur Nikodem was a young man of his time, moving frequently around Europe to study in numerous art capitals during the freedom of the interwar years. His career, however, like that of many burgeoning artists of this time, was greatly curtailed in the lead-up to World War II. Eventually his paintings were outlawed and many destroyed by the rising Nazi regime that invaded his home country, Austria, in 1938.
Primarily a painter, Nikodem was also an accomplished photographer, but his works in this medium were never exhibited or discussed outside of his studio until after his death. With his camera he documented the small towns and pastoral beauty of the Austrian countryside, as well as the women in his life. In quietly sensual portraits, he captured his models, lovers, and also his wife, Barbara, seen here. The subtle tension between the older artist and his much younger subject speaks to the power dynamic between muse and photographer. Comparable to the more widely known photographs Alfred Stieglitz made of Georgia O’Keeffe, Artur Nikodem’s portraits are similarly characterized by either playful experimentation or somber meditation, but always with an undercurrent of eroticism.
Eve Schillo
2024
