Alfred Schlosser

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Wölkerkogel -Madonna (1954)
Wall relief in Seiersberg (1966)

Alfred Schlosser (born March 31, 1929 in Kowald , Styria ) is an Austrian academic sculptor . Be primarily religious work with a number of saints includes, shrines , war memorials and wall reliefs and shapes especially its western Styria home district Voitsberg . His most-noticed creations include the Madonna on the Wölkerkogel , the Eduard-Walcher-Brunnen on the market square in Ligist or the Frauenbrunnen in Geistthal .

Life

Alfred Schlosser was born in 1929 as the first of six children to a farming family in Kowald near Voitsberg . He attended elementary and secondary school in Voitsberg and was raised strictly Catholic by his father, a cattle dealer. As a teenager, Schlosser made numerous stone and wood carvings, but his talent was only discovered in 1947 by a summer visitor who recommended him professional training. His father, however, had planned for his son to study theology . Schlosser attended the Graz School of Applied Arts , where Walter Ritter and Alexander Silveri were among his teachers.

The young artist's first employer and sponsor was Rudolf Bauer, owner of the Bauer pipe and pump construction factory in Köflach . In the spring of 1954 Schlosser took part in the youth biennial in Gorizia , where he received the prize of 30,000 lire from the city of Trieste for his stone sculpture “Maria Goretti” . With the help of the painter and sculptor Franz Weiss , he designed the statue of the Madonna on the Wölkerkogel in the same year , which is still one of his most famous works today. A first exhibition with sculptures and disk reliefs by the sculptor took place in the Kollegger bookstore in Voitsberg. In 1959 Schlosser married his wife Irmgard, with whom he settled in Krottendorf , where his place of work is to this day. In the following years and decades he received countless orders from communities , associations and farmers. The passionate photographer and hobby filmmaker has captured most of his works of art as slides or on film.

plant

Alfred Schlosser's varied work is spread across the whole of Styria. His works of art can occasionally be found in the Carinthian Lavant Valley . In addition to numerous shrines , the artist created fountains , war memorials , wall reliefs , free-standing sculptures and design elements in chapels, churches and laying out halls . Until 1980, Schlosser mainly used self-made artificial sandstone as a material , then mainly local marble , for example from Salla or Kainach , whereby he personally selected the blocks in the quarries.

Schlosser sees the Gothic style of the French cathedrals as a great example for his sculptures and reliefs . However, he does not carry on the original elements of medieval art in his figures, but makes them "credible" through his own artistic attitude. Schlosser draws literary inspiration from the works of Gertrud von le Fort , which are expressed, for example, in his devotion to Mary , or from art historian Hans Sedlmayr , whose rejection of abstraction he shares. The Kleine Zeitung reported on the young sculptor in 1958 and described him as a “preacher in stone”, who captured his Christian worldview in his works. In an exhibition catalog from 1988 it was said that the artist succeeded in carving "scenes of naive intimacy". The work of the West Styrian contains numerous symbols , for example death as a drummer in a wall relief on the bank building in Bärnbach, described as the "Bärnbacher Totentanz" .

Critical voices said that Schlosser's work was "strict and out of date". In addition, the artist himself found that he received few commissions from church institutions because they saw his work “too critically”.

The following list contains works by Schlosser that were created in public spaces up to 1998.

Ulrich von Liechtenstein bust in Graz Castle
Settlers Memorial in Graz-Neuhart
Pietà in the cemetery barn of St. Marein near Neumarkt
Fountain in front of the Maria Straßengel church
Fountain in Judendorf-Straßengel
Wayside shrine in Kleinprethal
Marterl am Steinberg in Graz-Wetzelsdorf
Wayside shrine in Dietersdorf
Annabründl in Flattendorf
Anthony's shrine in the Pfarrhof Weißkirchen
Statue at the Pirka animal cemetery
Village fountain in Krottendorf-Gaisfeld
Protective mantle Madonna in Neuseiersberg

Fountain

Monuments

Personal monuments

Event related monuments

Wall reliefs and mosaics

  • early 1950s: St. Nicholas relief at Vlg. Weingartbauer in Kowald
  • 1954/56: Reliefs for the Columns of the Cross of the Judenburg Calvary
  • 1959: Pietà relief at the parish church of Sankt Martin am Wöllmißberg
  • 1966: Relief on the outside of the Raiffeisenbank Seiersberg
  • 1967: Relief at the fire station in Wildon
  • 1967: Plague picture and mosaic St. Barbara in the town hall of Voitsberg
  • 1972: Wall reliefs in the entrance area of ​​Raiffeisenbank Voitsberg on the street and parking lot side
  • 1975: Relief works on the east wall and in the counter hall of the Raiffeisenkasse Bärnbach
  • 1977: Mosaic wall with high relief figures in the Raiffeisen-Landesbank in Raaba
  • 1979: Relief designs in the entrance area of ​​the Raiffeisenbank Ligist

Metalwork

  • Mid-1960s: Copper-driven sculpture on the bank building of the Raiffeisenbank Voitsberg
  • 1967: Wrought iron cemetery gate in St. Johann ob Hohenburg
  • 1979: Reliefs made of cast bronze in the Raiffeisen Bank Ligist

Free-form figures

Design elements in sacred buildings

Religious landmarks

Wayside shrines

House crosses and martyrs

Death lights

Cemetery designs

literature

  • Gertrude Vanek: The West Styrian sculptor Alfred Schlosser. Notes on the iconography of a popular visual world of the present. Diploma thesis at the Institute for Folklore of the Karl-Franzens-University Graz 1998, 404 pp.

Web links

Commons : Alfred Schlosser  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Gertrude Vanek: The West Styrian sculptor Alfred Schlosser. Notes on the iconography of a popular visual world of the present. Diploma thesis at the Institute for Folklore of the Karl-Franzens-University Graz 1998, pp. 6-19.
  2. ^ Ernst Lasnik : 177 West Styrian Treasures. An art and culture guide through the Lipizzaner homeland. V. f. Collector, Graz 2014, pp. 80–81. ISBN 978-3-85365-273-2 .
  3. ^ A b Walter Kienreich: The relief works by the sculptor Alfred Schlosser on the bank buildings in Voitsberg and Bärnbach. Manuscript n.d. Quoted in: Vanek 1998, p. 12.
  4. ↑ Karl Hans Haysen during the Easter supplement of the Kleine Zeitung , Issue of April 5, 1958. Cited in: Vanek 1998, p. 11
  5. ↑ Ernst Lasnik : Harmony of Opposites. Catalog for the special exhibition as part of the state exhibition in 1988 in Greißenegg Castle . Graz 1988, p. 39. Quoted in: Vanek 1998, p. 6.
  6. ↑ Heimo Kaindl: When pictures speak. Christian signs and symbols. Catalog for the exhibition in the Diözesanmuseum Graz 1992, p. 6. Quoted in: Vanek 1998, p. 16.
  7. ↑ Vanek 1998, pp. 20-377.
  8. ^ Hans Wilfinger: Religious land monuments and places of worship in the parish Hartberg. Men's movement of the parish Hartberg 1993, pp. 83–84.
  9. ^ Bollard St. Marein. Kärntner Bildungswerk GmbH, accessed on May 15, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Kirchbichlkreuz. Kärntner Bildungswerk GmbH, accessed on May 15, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Schlosser, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian academic sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Kowald , Styria