Austrian Art Archives – Daily Art Fixx

Friedensreich Hundertwasser: 1928-2000

December 15, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Born Friedrich Stowasser on December 15, 1928 in Vienna, Austria, Friedensreich Hundertwasser was one of the best-known Austrian painters and architects of the 20th century.

Hundertwasser studied briefly at the Montessori school in Vienna, and in 1948 he studied 19th century watercolour landscape at the Fine Art Academy. He was influenced by the art of the Vienna Seccesion, the Austrian figurative painter Egon Schiele, and Gustav Klimt.

In 1949, Hundertwasser traveled to Italy and met the French artist René Brô, with whom he later painted murals in Paris. During this time his work became more abstract but still contained symbolic figurative elements. Hundertwasser had his first solo exhibition in 1952 at the Art Club in Vienna.

In 1953, Hundertwasser’s spiral motif began to appear in his work and was a reference to the creation of life. This motif became a constant element in his paintings, which included a combination of contrasting colors and vibrant pigments. In 1953, Hundertwasser developed his “transautomatism” theory which focused on the innate creativity of the viewer.

It wasn’t until the 1950s that Hundertwasser began focusing on architecture. This began with manifestos, essays and demonstrations. In his view, the welfare of human beings depended on the style of architecture in which their houses were built. He believed that “architecture would be the people’s third skin and that everybody must be enabled to design this skin as he likes, just as he may design his first (his natural skin) and his second skin (his clothes).”

In 1958, Hundertwasser released his treatise against rationalism in architecture titled “Verschimmelungmanifest”. In the 1960s he traveled to Europe and Asia and began producing architectural models for ecological structures. He also started refurbishing and decorating public and private buildings. He successfully took part in the Tokyo International Art Exhibition in 1960, and the following year he showed at the Venice Biennale.

Hundertwasser became interested in graphics during the 1970s and designed the poster for the 1971 Monaco Olympics. Hundertwasser also created flags, stamps, coins, and posters. His most famous flag is the Koru Flag. Along with designing postage stamps for the Austrian Post Office, he also created stamps for the Cape Verde islands, and for the United Nations postal administration in Geneva for the 35th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In 1973, he published a portfolio of woodcuts by various Japanese artists who had used his paintings as inspiration. In 1972, he published a manifesto on “the right to a window space” and in 1978, the Manifesto of Peace. Both reflected the artist’s ideology about searching for harmony between man and nature.

In 1998, the Institue Mathildenhöhe of Darmstadt held a retrospective of Hundertwasser’s work. The following year he moved to New Zealand and continued to work on architectural projects. In 1999, Hundertwasser started his last project named Die Grüne Zitadelle von Magdeburg. He never finished this project although the building was constructed a few years later in Magdeburg, Germany, and opened on October 3, 2005.

Friedensreich Hundertwasser died of a heart attack while on board the Queen Elizabeth II on February 19, 2000. For more complete biographical information, see the source links below.

Sources: Wikipedia, Hundertwasser.com, Peggy Guggenheim Collection

Gustav Klimt: 1862-1918

July 14, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Born on July 14, 1862 in Baumgarten, near Vienna, Austria, Gustav Klimt is considered one of the greatest decorative painters of the 20th century. From 1876 to 1883, he attended the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts) where he studied figural drawing and painting. His brother Ernst also enrolled in the school in 1877. By 1880, the Klimt brothers, and fellow student Franz Matschhad had formed a team they called the “Artists’ Company, Klimt Brothers and Matsch”. The group received numerous commissions painting interior murals and ceilings in public buildings including the National Theatre in Bucharest, and the new Burgtheater and Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. After completing the Burgtheater frescoes Klimt was awarded the Austrian Gold Cross for Merit by Emperor Francis Joseph, for his watercolour View of the Interior of the Old Burgtheater.

In 1892, both Klimt’s father and brother Ernst died, leaving Gustav responsible for both families. Around this time, Klimt met Emilie Flöge, who became his life-long companion. Outside of his relationship with Emilie, Klimt is believed to have fathered fourteen children.

By 1894, Klimt’s style became less academic, his painting taking on a more fantastic and blended style of Art Nouveau and Symbolism that was overtly sexual. Public criticism of his work came after he was commissioned to create three paintings for the Great Hall in the University of Vienna. Labeled radical, pornographic, and disturbing, the paintings were not displayed. As a result, Klimt refused all public commissions.

In 1897, Klimt became one of the founding members and the president of the Vienna Secession, also known as the Union of Austrian Artists. Secession artists objected to the conservatism of the Vienna Künstlerhaus and was supportive of exploring the possibilities of art outside the confines of academic tradition.

Klimt’s ‘Golden Phase’, beginning around 1898, received positive critical reaction and success. Many of his paintings from this period utilized gold leaf and a common theme was that of the dominant woman or femme fatale. Influences contributing to Klimt’s unique style include Egyptian, Minoan, Classical Greek, and Byzantine. Klimt was also inspired by the engravings of Albrecht Dürer, late medieval European painting, and the Japanese Rimpa school.

Klimt’s later works (1900’s and on) are dominated by portraiture and landscapes of the Attersee, near Salzburg. Overall, his output was relatively small, producing between four and six canvases a year. He was, however, a prolific draughtsman and several thousand surviving drawings make him one of the most accomplished draughtsmen of his era.

Klimt continued painting until his death on February 6, 1918, from pneumonia following a stroke. He was just 56 years old, and many of his paintings were left unfinished.

For more information about Gustav Klimt, visit the source references below.

Water-Serpents-II-Gustav-Klimt-1904-07

Sources: MOMA, Art History Archive, Galerie St. Etienne, Wikipedia, Klimt.com

Egon Schiele: 1890-1918

June 12, 2016 By Wendy Campbell

Born on June 12, 1890, in Tulln, Austria Egon Schiele was a major figure of the Austrian Expressionist movement.

Schiele began drawing as a child and in 1906, at the age of sixteen, attended the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. During these years, he was strongly influenced by Gustav Klimt and the Vienna Secession artists whose style emphasized flowing line and ornamentation. Schiele and Klimt had met in 1907 and Klimt was supportive of the young artist. He introduced Schiele to his own models and patrons, and helped him find work. He also included Schiele in the 1909 Internationale Kunstchau Exhibition of foreign and Austrian artists.

In 1909, Schiele became dissatisfied with the academy’s conservatism and formed the Neukünstler (New Artists) Group with other dropouts from the Academy. Free from the confines of the Academy’s conventions, Schiele began to explore the human form and human sexuality in his work. At the time, many found the explicitness of his works ugly and disturbing. Through 1913, Schiele created his best known works – drawings of female models, either nude or semi-nude in oddly foreshortened poses.

In 1915, Schiele married Edith Harms, was drafted into the military and assigned to various posts outside Vienna. Creating portraits of Edith, Schiele adapted a more naturalistic approach which he also used in the increasing number of portrait commissions he had begun to receive.

“Draughtsmanship played a significant role in Schiele’s art. Although he produced few original prints, he made numerous independent drawings, in which he used pencil or chalk, and occasionally charcoal or ink, to create a sharply defined outline that he then filled in with watercolour or gouache. Schiele was shy and introspective, but obsessive in the pursuit of his art and in his contemplation of mortality, which provoked the confessional and compassionate tone of his work.”

In 1918, Schiele was invited to show a large exhibition of his work at the Viennese Seccession. Just as he had begun to achieve commercial success, both Schiele and his wife contracted the Spanish flu. Edith, who was six months pregnant, died on October 28, 1918. Schiele died three days later on October 31, 1918 at the age of 28.

Though Schiele’s career was short, he was extremely prolific. He created over three hundred oil paintings and several thousand works on paper. His work has inspired the work of later artists, especially in Austria, making him a major figure in 20th-century art.

Sources: MoMA, Met Museum, Wikipedia