Viktor IV (Walter Carl Glück, 1929-1986)

(Kala. A faithful man is an attractive man). 1968. Oil on driftwood, 100 x 29 cm. 'Adam, 5 XI 1968, IIII' in paint on reverse.

Viktor IV (or Bulgar Finn, born Walter Carl Glück) was an American artist who settled in Amsterdam in 1961. Into the 70s he worked on his Ikons: pieces of driftwood he salvaged from the IJ river and painted in primitive colours, often with self-imagined runes and black template letters. His houseboat in the river Amstel was surrounded by homemade floats; in 1986, while conducting repairs repairs he swam underneath one of these floats and drowned.