Weird Art Wednesday: Franz Sedlacek's Gespenster Auf Dem Baum

Austrian artist, Franz Sedlacek, led a seemingly normal life for the most part. He was born in 1891, went to college, served in WWI, finished school, got married, and had a couple of daughters. However, he belonged to an artistic movement known as New Objectivity, which, according to Wikipedia, was quite similar to Magical Realism. And, its easy to see from much of his artwork that something was a little....different...in his creativity.

Sedlacek wasn't always a painter. In fact, he was trained as a chemist and started his art career drawing humorous cartoons, which led to a stint in graphic art and design. It wasn't until later that he would concentrate on oil painting, and would create some REALLY awesome and REALLY strange paintings.

Out of Sedlacek's spookier works, I felt an immediate draw to this painting, completed in 1933. The name of the painting is Gespenster Auf Dem Baum, which translates to The Ghosts on the Tree.

Sedlacek is said to have died in 1945 when he 'disappeared' in Poland while serving in WWII, although he wasn't legally declared dead until decades later. You can read more about Franz Sedlacek on his official website.

Detail of 'ghosts'