Cow wish 2004

Christian Attersee’s painting "Cow wish" presents us with a vibrant and surreal dreamscape. Born in 1940, Attersee came of age in a post-war Austria grappling with its identity. Attersee's art is characterized by its playful, often erotic, exploration of color and form. In "Cow wish," the central figure is a cow, rendered in stark white against a background of swirling colors. The cow is not just an animal, but a symbol, loaded with cultural associations of fertility, nourishment, and rural life. Yet, Attersee subverts these traditional readings by placing the cow in an abstract, almost hallucinatory setting. The painting develops alternative narratives, one where desire and nature intertwine. Attersee once said, “Art should be a feast for the senses, a celebration of life.” "Cow wish" invites us to indulge in its sensory richness, and to consider the ways in which our desires shape our perceptions of the world around us.