Josef Mikl's painting cannot be categorised in any of the classical art movements in Austria after 1945. He found his very own way into abstraction without ever completely abandoning representationalism, even if this is not always easy to recognise at first glance. His starting point was always the human figure or an object: what is still easy to understand in his drawings is usually difficult to decipher in his paintings. However, the titles of many of his pictures point to their origin in the figurative. They always have a top and bottom, right and left. ‘Mikl is not an imitator of nature, still less its copyist; he translates it, transports it, allowing himself the freedom of his own creation and transcending the interpretative, hermeneutic.’ (Josef Mikl in conversation with Maria Rennhofer, in: Josef Mikl. Retrospektiv 1947 - 2003, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems 2004/2005, p. 9 f.) Josef Mikl is one of those artists who work spontaneously on canvas without any preliminary drawing: ‘Chance as a stimulus for creative potential is affirmed in a sovereign manner’, comments the art historian Artur Rosenauer on Mikl's working method (Artur Rosenauer, Zum Verhältnis zwischen Malerei und Zeichnung, in: Josef Mikl. Retrospektiv 1947 - 2003, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems 2004/2005, p. 143) If the formats are large, he lays them on the floor so that he can easily reach all areas and work on the canvas from all sides. Mikl is an intellectual artist, his works are well thought-out products of intensive planning. Once he has started, however, he works quickly - the powerful, rapid brushstrokes mean that his paintings are characterised by great energy and tension. The intense yellow, orange and red tones that characterise Mikl's work intensify this effect; sometimes they are contrasted with an irritating blue and the black contours of bodies that are not executed but are nevertheless present appear again and again. "For Mikl, the interplay between the spontaneous unconsciousness of his talent and the intervention of critical artistic judgement is a fundamental feature of his work. An interplay that in reality forms a unity: the free development of the intuitive in the sovereign mastery of craftsmanship, controlled by a sensitive and incorruptible eye." (Artur Rosenauer, Introduction, in: Josef Mikl (ed.), Catalogue Josef Mikl, Works 1980 - 87, Vienna 1988)