Egon von Vietinghoff
Encyclopedia
Egon von Vietinghoff was a German
-Swiss
painter
, author
, philosopher and creator of the Egon von Vietinghoff Foundation. He reconstructed the lost painting techniques of the Old Masters, and created some 2.700 paintings.
and Dutch
ancestors, was a writer of philosophical books. He spent his childhood in France
(Paris
) and Germany (Wiesbaden
), lived in Switzerland after 1913 (Geneva
, Zuoz
and finally Zurich
). Born a Russia
n subject, he became a Swiss citizen in 1922, together with his parents and his brother. From 1922 to 1937 he lived in Germany (Munich
), Italy
(on the isle of Capri
), France (again in Paris), Spain
(on the isle of Majorca), Argentina
(Buenos Aires
), and Uruguay
(near Atlántida). In 1937 he settled down in Switzerland, first in Zollikon
and then in Zurich, and lived there until his death in 1994. Vietinghoff can be seen to be a real Europe
an when one considers his ancestors, his four wives who are natives of Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria
, and in particular his fluency in many European languages, his extensive knowledge of European literature, all of which combined to form a truly European mentality.
Egon von Vietinghoff started his career as an artist at age 17 and decided to finally lay down his paint brush at the age of 87 years. All his life he remained an outsider
, unerring in his artistic judgment, and content to find his own path in life. Uncompromisingly he followed his artistic conscience, his visual perception and the urge to translate that perception it into painting.
and resin
not taught in technical handbooks and academies. Several liquid layers of color (glazes
) can be applied either thick, semi-covering or translucent, one on top of the other. Different steps of light reflection bring about depth and color differentiations not possible in the same way by wet-on-wet
painting. The plasticity
thus obtained does not need any conspicuous construction of perspective
. This knowledge is the basis of the color depth and the luminous power typical of Vietinghoff's paintings. His differentiated way of seeing required painting techniques which needs first-class natural substances produced with great care – beside of some indispensable colors from chemical origin. He therefore produced himself the colors he needed. Even the necessary solvent
s and binder
s were prepared by him. Usually at least half of his time went into this manual preparation before he could start to paint. Another essential contribution to the natural effect, the convincing freshness, and the depth of color of his paintings is made by the main use of natural substances which were as pure as possible for the production of colors and binders. For this he used organic raw materials such as egg
, casein
, linseed and poppy
seed oil, leather glue
, wax
, gum arabic
, cherry
tree resin, larch turpentine
, fossil
resin and different earths.
His "Handbuch zur Technik der Malerei" (Handbook of painting technique, in German only and out of print) is a compendium of all his work experiences. Here Vietinghoff brought in the sum total of his life-long observations, defined the translucency of color (a property which have previously gone unnoticed in literature) and tackled the theory of chromatics
as seen by the creative artist. Among other things, he gaves practical ideas concerning color production, brushwork and picture composition, including examples of pictures of well-known masters and also his own work.
ual construction. It looks for the nature of the world and by way of its sensations it reaches metaphysical
insights. Thus Vietinghoff found an alternative to the extreme poles of naturalism realism and abstraction
or of copy and construction. Departing from a philosophical and mystical concept, he understood imagination in the sense of creative ability as the possibility of the human spirit to perceive transcendently
.
In artistic intensification, intuition
– a sort of "seventh sense" – leads to inspiration
and uses imagination as an organ of perception of the irrational, absolute reality which we can only divine temporarily with our limited view of the world. Imagination is therefore no original thought, no speculative dream-world, no willful reconstruction and no alienation of phenomena. Vietinghoff understood painting consistently in the sense of related to color, produced on the basis of nothing else but the visual function of the eyes, but not as abstract in the sense of geometric, plane-based or symbol
ic. Purely visual means based on purely sensual perception, unaltered by addition, alienation or mental
intention – or in other words free of acquired knowledge. In years of meditative
visual exercises, he opened himself to unintentional perception of the objects as color surfaces existing side by side; thus he made himself ready for inspiration. In this "school of pure vision" earlier understandings and assumptions of the materiality of things fade out: they disintegrate into individual color areas leaving the inner dynamics of light and color to be realized as the only facts. The three-dimensional
things are temporarily translated by the artist into color planes placed side by side. The observer has no trouble to retransmit them into spatial seeing since human beings are used to seeing concretely. Opened up to experiences differing from the usual ones needed for the management of day by day life, the world appears as nothing more than the interaction of hues and shadings in a color context, i.e. as symphony of colors or as "drama of color and form", showing the observer an aspect differing from the one he knows already.
, pen
, crayon
, etching
-needle, brush
. His most expressive paintings are in oil and resin, although he worked also in distemper
and made portrait drawings in sanguine
. Later on, he used distemper just as a priming coat on top of the grounding. The immense work of Egon von Vietinghoff includes all classical motifs: flowers, still life
s, landscapes, portrait
s, nudes, and figural scenes. Due to the large demand, more than half of his total work consists of fruit still lifes. The beholder's normal distance to the picture procures balanced representation and self-contained calm of the object. Without losing himself in details, Vietinghoff leads the eye through the whole spectrum of nuances of color and finds the balance between intensity and gentle peace. Thus, he created the impression of unity and harmonic interaction of object and background, light and shadow, form and color, detail and totality. Technically and mentally, Vietinghoff confronted the Old Masters and learned from them. However, he did not imitate or "quoted" them and found his own "handwriting" as a painter. His pictures convey naturalness and – without showy perspective – attract attention due to their plasticity, inner luminosity and masterly placed highlights.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
-Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, philosopher and creator of the Egon von Vietinghoff Foundation. He reconstructed the lost painting techniques of the Old Masters, and created some 2.700 paintings.
Live
Egon von Vietinghoff grew up in an artists’ house: his father was a pianist of German-Baltic origin, his mother, who has BelgianBelgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
and Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
ancestors, was a writer of philosophical books. He spent his childhood in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
) and Germany (Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
), lived in Switzerland after 1913 (Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, Zuoz
Zuoz
Zuoz is a municipality in the district of Maloja in the Swiss canton of Graubünden.-History:Zuoz is first mentioned about 840 as Zuzes. Historically, Zuoz was the political center of the upper Engadin. It was the seat of the local bishop. But, it has long ago been supplanted by other Engadin...
and finally Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
). Born a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n subject, he became a Swiss citizen in 1922, together with his parents and his brother. From 1922 to 1937 he lived in Germany (Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
), Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
(on the isle of Capri
Capri
Capri is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Southern Italy...
), France (again in Paris), Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
(on the isle of Majorca), Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
(Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
), and Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
(near Atlántida). In 1937 he settled down in Switzerland, first in Zollikon
Zollikon
Zollikon is a municipality in the district of Meilen in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.-Geography:Zollikon has an area of . Of this area, 21.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 37.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 40.8% is settled and the remainder is non-productive...
and then in Zurich, and lived there until his death in 1994. Vietinghoff can be seen to be a real Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an when one considers his ancestors, his four wives who are natives of Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, and in particular his fluency in many European languages, his extensive knowledge of European literature, all of which combined to form a truly European mentality.
Egon von Vietinghoff started his career as an artist at age 17 and decided to finally lay down his paint brush at the age of 87 years. All his life he remained an outsider
Outsider Art
The term outsider art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut , a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture; Dubuffet focused particularly on art by insane-asylum inmates.While...
, unerring in his artistic judgment, and content to find his own path in life. Uncompromisingly he followed his artistic conscience, his visual perception and the urge to translate that perception it into painting.
Technique
During 35 years of autonomous experimenting, from about 1923 until about 1958, Egon von Vietinghoff rediscovered the knowledge of multi-layer mixing of oilOil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
and resin
Resin
Resin in the most specific use of the term is a hydrocarbon secretion of many plants, particularly coniferous trees. Resins are valued for their chemical properties and associated uses, such as the production of varnishes, adhesives, and food glazing agents; as an important source of raw materials...
not taught in technical handbooks and academies. Several liquid layers of color (glazes
Glaze (painting technique)
Glazes can change the chroma, value, hue and texture of a surface. Drying time will depend on the amount and type of paint medium used in the glaze. The medium, base, or vehicle is the mixture to which the dry pigment is added...
) can be applied either thick, semi-covering or translucent, one on top of the other. Different steps of light reflection bring about depth and color differentiations not possible in the same way by wet-on-wet
Wet-on-wet
Wet-on-wet is a painting technique in which layers of wet paint are applied to previous layers of wet paint. This technique requires a fast way of working, because the art work has to be finished before the first layers have dried....
painting. The plasticity
Plasticity
Plasticity may refer to:Science* Plasticity , in physics and engineering, plasticity is the propensity of a material to undergo permanent deformation under load...
thus obtained does not need any conspicuous construction of perspective
Perspective (visual)
Perspective, in context of vision and visual perception, is the way in which objects appear to the eye based on their spatial attributes; or their dimensions and the position of the eye relative to the objects...
. This knowledge is the basis of the color depth and the luminous power typical of Vietinghoff's paintings. His differentiated way of seeing required painting techniques which needs first-class natural substances produced with great care – beside of some indispensable colors from chemical origin. He therefore produced himself the colors he needed. Even the necessary solvent
Solvent
A solvent is a liquid, solid, or gas that dissolves another solid, liquid, or gaseous solute, resulting in a solution that is soluble in a certain volume of solvent at a specified temperature...
s and binder
Binder
The reaper-binder, or binder, was a farm implement that improved upon the reaper. The binder was invented in 1872 by Charles Withington. In addition to cutting the small-grain crop, it would also tie the stems into small bundles, or sheaves...
s were prepared by him. Usually at least half of his time went into this manual preparation before he could start to paint. Another essential contribution to the natural effect, the convincing freshness, and the depth of color of his paintings is made by the main use of natural substances which were as pure as possible for the production of colors and binders. For this he used organic raw materials such as egg
Egg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
, casein
Casein
Casein is the name for a family of related phosphoprotein proteins . These proteins are commonly found in mammalian milk, making up 80% of the proteins in cow milk and between 60% and 65% of the proteins in human milk....
, linseed and poppy
Poppy
A poppy is one of a group of a flowering plants in the poppy family, many of which are grown in gardens for their colorful flowers. Poppies are sometimes used for symbolic reasons, such as in remembrance of soldiers who have died during wartime....
seed oil, leather glue
Animal glue
An animal glue is an adhesive that is created by prolonged boiling of animal connective tissue.These protein colloid glues are formed through hydrolysis of the collagen from skins, bones, tendons, and other tissues, similar to gelatin. The word "collagen" itself derives from Greek κόλλα kolla, glue...
, wax
Wax
thumb|right|[[Cetyl palmitate]], a typical wax ester.Wax refers to a class of chemical compounds that are plastic near ambient temperatures. Characteristically, they melt above 45 °C to give a low viscosity liquid. Waxes are insoluble in water but soluble in organic, nonpolar solvents...
, gum arabic
Gum arabic
220px|thumb|right|Acacia gumGum arabic, also known as acacia gum, chaar gund, char goond, or meska, is a natural gum made of hardened sap taken from two species of the acacia tree; Acacia senegal and Acacia seyal...
, cherry
Cherry
The cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy stone fruit. The cherry fruits of commerce are usually obtained from a limited number of species, including especially cultivars of the wild cherry, Prunus avium....
tree resin, larch turpentine
Turpentine
Turpentine is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin obtained from trees, mainly pine trees. It is composed of terpenes, mainly the monoterpenes alpha-pinene and beta-pinene...
, fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
resin and different earths.
His "Handbuch zur Technik der Malerei" (Handbook of painting technique, in German only and out of print) is a compendium of all his work experiences. Here Vietinghoff brought in the sum total of his life-long observations, defined the translucency of color (a property which have previously gone unnoticed in literature) and tackled the theory of chromatics
Chromatics
Chromatics are a band from Portland, Oregon, whose current lineup features singer Ruth Radelet, guitarist Adam Miller, drummer Nat Walker, and producer/multi-instrumentalist Johnny Jewel. The band originally featured a trademark sound indebted to punk and lo-fi and described as "noisy" and "chaotic"...
as seen by the creative artist. Among other things, he gaves practical ideas concerning color production, brushwork and picture composition, including examples of pictures of well-known masters and also his own work.
Philosophy
Independently of current tendencies, he studied the originals of the Old Masters in order to put down his observations experimentally. Thus he discovers not only the technique of mixing oil and resin, but also the spiritual aspect of genuine works of art. In his terminology, the way of looking at things is called "vision", the painting making such visions visible "Transcendental painting". In order to perceive the world, he opened up to the phenomena of nature. However, it is not the surface of things he painted but their disintegration into color interactions taking place before his eyes. He reproduced a play of colors in which he submerges, and not a collection of individual narrative observations. Since the play of colors and light emanates from existing things his Transcendental painting is concrete, but inasmuch as it reproduces sensations and not measurable characteristics of things, it is at the same time the opposite of naturalism / realism. On the one hand Transcendental painting does not copy, and on the other hand it does not invent anything by means of intellectIntellect
Intellect is a term used in studies of the human mind, and refers to the ability of the mind to come to correct conclusions about what is true or real, and about how to solve problems...
ual construction. It looks for the nature of the world and by way of its sensations it reaches metaphysical
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
insights. Thus Vietinghoff found an alternative to the extreme poles of naturalism realism and abstraction
Abstraction
Abstraction is a process by which higher concepts are derived from the usage and classification of literal concepts, first principles, or other methods....
or of copy and construction. Departing from a philosophical and mystical concept, he understood imagination in the sense of creative ability as the possibility of the human spirit to perceive transcendently
Transcendence (philosophy)
In philosophy, the adjective transcendental and the noun transcendence convey the basic ground concept from the word's literal meaning , of climbing or going beyond, albeit with varying connotations in its different historical and cultural stages...
.
In artistic intensification, intuition
Intuition (knowledge)
Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason. "The word 'intuition' comes from the Latin word 'intueri', which is often roughly translated as meaning 'to look inside'’ or 'to contemplate'." Intuition provides us with beliefs that we cannot necessarily justify...
– a sort of "seventh sense" – leads to inspiration
Artistic inspiration
Inspiration refers to an unconscious burst of creativity in a literary, musical, or other artistic endeavour. Literally, the word means "breathed upon," and it has its origins in both Hellenism and Hebraism. The Greeks believed that inspiration came from the muses, as well as the gods Apollo and...
and uses imagination as an organ of perception of the irrational, absolute reality which we can only divine temporarily with our limited view of the world. Imagination is therefore no original thought, no speculative dream-world, no willful reconstruction and no alienation of phenomena. Vietinghoff understood painting consistently in the sense of related to color, produced on the basis of nothing else but the visual function of the eyes, but not as abstract in the sense of geometric, plane-based or symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
ic. Purely visual means based on purely sensual perception, unaltered by addition, alienation or mental
Mind
The concept of mind is understood in many different ways by many different traditions, ranging from panpsychism and animism to traditional and organized religious views, as well as secular and materialist philosophies. Most agree that minds are constituted by conscious experience and intelligent...
intention – or in other words free of acquired knowledge. In years of meditative
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
visual exercises, he opened himself to unintentional perception of the objects as color surfaces existing side by side; thus he made himself ready for inspiration. In this "school of pure vision" earlier understandings and assumptions of the materiality of things fade out: they disintegrate into individual color areas leaving the inner dynamics of light and color to be realized as the only facts. The three-dimensional
Three-dimensional space
Three-dimensional space is a geometric 3-parameters model of the physical universe in which we live. These three dimensions are commonly called length, width, and depth , although any three directions can be chosen, provided that they do not lie in the same plane.In physics and mathematics, a...
things are temporarily translated by the artist into color planes placed side by side. The observer has no trouble to retransmit them into spatial seeing since human beings are used to seeing concretely. Opened up to experiences differing from the usual ones needed for the management of day by day life, the world appears as nothing more than the interaction of hues and shadings in a color context, i.e. as symphony of colors or as "drama of color and form", showing the observer an aspect differing from the one he knows already.
Work
Egon von Vietinghoff used pencilPencil
A pencil is a writing implement or art medium usually constructed of a narrow, solid pigment core inside a protective casing. The case prevents the core from breaking, and also from marking the user’s hand during use....
, pen
Pen
A pen is a device used to apply ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Historically, reed pens, quill pens, and dip pens were used, with a nib of some sort to be dipped in the ink. Ruling pens allow precise adjustment of line width, and still find a few specialized uses, but...
, crayon
Crayon
A crayon is a stick of colored wax, charcoal, chalk, or other materials used for writing, coloring, drawing, and other methods of illustration. A crayon made of oiled chalk is called an oil pastel; when made of pigment with a dry binder, it is simply a pastel; both are popular media for color...
, etching
Etching
Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
-needle, brush
Brush
A brush is a tool with bristles, wire or other filaments, used for cleaning, grooming hair, make up, painting, surface finishing and for many other purposes. It is one of the most basic and versatile tools known to mankind, and the average household may contain several dozen varieties...
. His most expressive paintings are in oil and resin, although he worked also in distemper
Distemper (paint)
Distemper is a term with a variety of meanings for paints used in decorating and as a historical medium for painting pictures. The binding element may be some form of glue or oil; these are known in decorating respectively as soft distemper and oil bound distemper.-Soft distemper:Distemper is an...
and made portrait drawings in sanguine
Sanguine
Sanguine is chalk of a reddish color, often called the true colour of blood. tending to brown, used in drawing, The word also describes any drawing done in sanguine.-Technique:...
. Later on, he used distemper just as a priming coat on top of the grounding. The immense work of Egon von Vietinghoff includes all classical motifs: flowers, still life
Still life
A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made...
s, landscapes, portrait
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
s, nudes, and figural scenes. Due to the large demand, more than half of his total work consists of fruit still lifes. The beholder's normal distance to the picture procures balanced representation and self-contained calm of the object. Without losing himself in details, Vietinghoff leads the eye through the whole spectrum of nuances of color and finds the balance between intensity and gentle peace. Thus, he created the impression of unity and harmonic interaction of object and background, light and shadow, form and color, detail and totality. Technically and mentally, Vietinghoff confronted the Old Masters and learned from them. However, he did not imitate or "quoted" them and found his own "handwriting" as a painter. His pictures convey naturalness and – without showy perspective – attract attention due to their plasticity, inner luminosity and masterly placed highlights.
Publications
- Egon von Vietinghoff, DuMont's Handbuch zur Technik der Malerei (The handbook of painting technique), DuMont Cologne 1983 and 1991, ISBN 3-7701-1519-8 (only in German and out of print).
- Egon von Vietinghoff – Die Stiftung (1990). Introduction in English by the artist, illustrations of the paintings of the Foundation's collection (catalogue), Zurich 1990, private publishing.
- Alexander von Vietinghoff, Die visionäre Malerei des Egon von Vietinghoff (The transcendental Painting of Egon von Vietinghoff), Zurich 1997 by the Egon von Vietinghoff Foundation, ISBN 3-9521269-0-X (in German only).
- Bernd Lewandowski and Alexander von Vietinghoff, Die visionäre Malerei des Egon von Vietinghoff (The Transcendental Painting of E. v. V.), film (video) of a slide show, Hamburg 1996 (in German only).
External links
- Die Egon von Vietinghoff-Stiftung (with online gallery and PDF download texts)