Toni Fötsch

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Toni Fötsch 1977

Toni Fötsch , actually Anton Fötsch (born June 25, 1920 in Graz - Straßgang , † September 13, 2008 in Vorau ) was an Austrian academic painter , graphic artist and restorer .

life and work

Growing up in Graz-Straßgang, Anton Fötsch, in addition to his work in agricultural businesses, took a distance learning course in Berlin by means of teaching letters (courses in the subjects of drawing and painting) - until he was called up for military service in 1940. During a war vacation in 1943, he passed the entrance exam at the Vienna Art Academy with Wilhelm Dachauer . On New Year's Eve of 1943/1944, Anton Fötsch was so badly injured by a grenade explosion that he had to carry a severe handicap in his left hand with him throughout his life.

After the end of the Second World War he attended the Graz School of Applied Arts (HTBLA Ortweinplatz) from 1945 to 1948 with Professors Fritz Silberbauer , Alfred Wickenburg and Rudolf Szyszkowitz . In order to be able to finance his life and studies, he worked, among other things, as a theater painter in the Graz City Theater ( Graz Opera House ). During his studies, he also received orders for restorations and artistic designs. After studying in Graz, Fötsch went back to Vienna to attend the master class at the Vienna Art Academy ( Academy of Fine Arts Vienna ) with Professors Herbert Boeckl and Albert Paris Gütersloh , during this time he also worked in the area of ​​the Art Club - working on the side he in a graphics studio. In the 1950s Fötsch lived in Wenigzell for family reasons , where he was restoring the ceiling frescoes in the parish church as early as 1947 - on the occasion of a study project. From then on his enormous travel and restoration work began through the whole of Styria.

Sgraffito at the cemetery church in Vorau

The acquaintance with Walter Stipperger , the initiator of numerous regional studies projects, as well as the state conservators Walter Frodl and above all Ulrich Ocherbauer , enabled him to develop and establish his sphere of activity as a restorer throughout Styria. From 1950 to 1985 Fötsch worked as a freelancer for the Federal Monuments Office (State Conservatory for Styria) and with around 250 restoration jobs, he was one of the busiest restorers in Styria in the second half of the 20th century. From the first large orders as an "art holder", such as For example, the restoration of all ceiling frescoes in Trautenfels Castle (1952 to 1954), which he was busy for almost three summers, through church and wayside shrines restoration , Anton Fötsch succeeded in breaking new ground as an artist and thus making a striking contribution to " Styrian Modernism ”. The war memorial at the cemetery church in Vorau and the wedding at the elementary school in Öblarn - both imposing sgraffito works are current witnesses to its innovative and already classic expression.

In his creative period of more than six decades, Anton Fötsch left behind numerous restorations as well as designs of wall paintings ( fresco and secco fresco) and sgraffiti in both public and private spaces - including churches, chapels, wayside shrines , castles, manors and inns, companies - and private buildings in more than 300 locations in over 150 municipalities in all political districts of Styria. The extensive oeuvre of Anton Fötsch, which in addition to oil and acrylic paintings, watercolors and drawings also includes woodcuts and linocuts as well as sculptures, corresponds to the variety of techniques used, with the main focus on the unique graphic essence and its communicability. His unmistakable, cubist design style is well known throughout Styria, the symbolic, aesthetic form and color compositions appear clear and expressive - sacred as well as profane, naturalistic or abstract - in masterful reduction to the core message of the work of art and with consistent reference to the surrounding area the respective region.

In 1960 he bought a house in Pöllau near Hartberg (Lodenwalke) and turned it into a place of work and residence. Toni Fötsch lived there for 45 years. He spent the last three years of his life in the senior citizens' home in Birkfeld , where he created numerous watercolors and devoted himself to the reprocessing of his life's work carried out by his great-nephew Christian Gschier .

A comprehensive artist monograph with a catalog raisonné is planned for 2015.

Works (selection)

Artistic designs (art in public space)

Sgraffito at the secondary school in Waldbach
Weather cross Strallegg

Restorations

literature

Web links

Commons : Toni Fötsch  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Fötsch, Toni
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fötsch, Anton (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian academic painter, graphic artist and restorer
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Graz - Straßgang
DATE OF DEATH September 13, 2008
Place of death Advance