With the “Great Austrian State Prize 2003”, Siegfried Anzinger’s work has received the highest state consecration in the Alpine Republic. At the same time, this is recognition of a very reserved artist, especially in the painting of the eighties and nineties, which may have always been somewhat difficult to deal with in Vienna, both on the official and the artistic side. The failure of the institutions seems too overpowering, the scandal of Actionism still too deeply felt. Perhaps this is why Siegfried Anzinger turned his back on the domestic scene as early as 1982 and moved to the Rhineland – where he has been teaching as a professor at the Düsseldorf Academy since 1997. This is the centre of his life; here, far from the Viennese world, he creates a formally mature, rigorous, but also immensely stringent and at the same time very surprising works. In fragments, mythological figures encounter contemporary sensibility, the formation of legends is measured against the nude and the phallus. For even in the world of myths there seems to be no real in the false, absolute will still triumphs over any form. This is the contradiction that Siegfried Anzinger fights out in his magnificent series of watercolours: the scene is quickly spoiled by the sexual, quickly devaluations are found where feeling sees no way out. But Siegfried Anzinger's masterly ability to balance is shown in his most recent works, created between 2001 and 2004: they float lightly between deep seriousness and great cheerfulness.