ADAM AND EVE UNDER THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE 1984

Ernst Fuchs created his version of ‘Adam and Eve Under the Tree of Knowledge’ reflecting the post-war re-examination of values through the lens of myth and psychoanalysis. Fuchs, a Jewish artist who survived the holocaust, co-founded the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism in 1946, in response to the horrors of World War II. The school focused on dreamlike, symbolic imagery with painstaking detail. Here, we see the biblical couple not as paragons of sin, but as complex figures on the cusp of change. Adam’s patriarchal features are softened, almost feminized by the flowing lines of his body. Eve's raised arm might be understood as a gesture of liberation. The androgynous angel entwined with the serpent suggests a fluidity of identity, a challenge to rigid gender roles. Ultimately, the painting asks us to consider not just the moment of the fall, but the potential for rebirth and re-evaluation that comes with knowledge.