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Born in Innsbruck, Markus Prachenksy studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and belongs to the group of young Austrian artists who caused a sensation in Vienna at the end of the 1950s with a series of artistic interventions that scandalised public opinion. Having declared himself the promoter of an entirely new kind of painting which he called peinture liquide, Prachensky poured several hundred litres of paint over a wall in the Theater am Fleischmarkt in Vienna to illustrate his theory.

Soon afterwards Prachensky found a method for his markedly gestural manner of painting based on a strict (albeit barely discernible) architectural framework - Prachensky had in fact originally studied architecture. The basic structure of his paintings is formed by vertical or inclined parallel bars of colour positioned on the canvas with masterly broad brushstrokes. Further horizontal layers of colour hover above this to produce a dense web of colour.

In this very powerful painting from the Batliner Collection an energetic dark green line running from left to right is placed directly on the white priming; upon it, in a lighter green, are a few undulating forms and splashes of colour that seem entirely accidental. Six red bars extending downwards at a slightly oblique angle to the edge of the painting seem to carry the composition like the legs of a table.

The title Amanpuri probably refers to impressions that Prachensky brought home with him from one of his trips around the world. Amanpuri is a small Thai island near Phuket. As the number 12 on the reverse indicates, this painting is the twelfth in a series of paintings with the same title.