Anton Kolig

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anton Kolig (born July 1, 1886 in Neutitschein , Moravia ; † May 17, 1950 in Nötsch , Carinthia ) was an Austrian, late Expressionist painter , university professor and one of the four members of the later so-called Nötsch Circle . He is the grandfather of the Austrian painter, sculptor , installation and object artist Cornelius Kolig .

Detail of the fresco of a Madonna and Child, surrounded by angels playing music, grave of the Michor family on the south exterior wall of the church in Saak
Mosaic tondo on the grave of Anton Kolig in the Saak cemetery in Nötsch

Life

Anton Kolig was the son of the room and church painter Ferdinand Kolig and his wife Maria. From 1904 Kolig studied - together with Oskar Kokoschka - at the arts and crafts school in Vienna. In 1907 he moved to the local Academy of Fine Arts , where he studied with Heinrich Lefler , Rudolf Bacher and Alois Delug . Here he got to know Sebastian Isepp and Franz Wiegele , as well as their home town of Nötsch in the Gailtal valley through stays together in the following years . In 1912 Anton Kolig married Katharina Wiegele, a sister of Franz Wiegele.

With Oskar Kokoschka , Anton Faistauer , Sebastian Isepp , and Franz Wiegele , he appeared for the first time with his works in 1911 at the exhibition of the Hagenbund . On the recommendation of Gustav Klimt and Carl Moll , Kolig and Wiegele received a grant in 1912 for a stay in Paris , where Kolig initially dealt with modern painting in the Louvre .

Surprised by the outbreak of World War I in Marseille in 1914 , he had to flee France in a rush, leaving his pictures behind. He reached Austria via Italy and stayed there in Nötsch. In April 1916, Kolig moved to the emergency reserve hospital in Klagenfurt as a Landsturmmann , worked on the southern front from July , but was drafted into the substitute battalion of the 31st Rifle Regiment in Teschen in 1917 . It was not until September 4, 1917 that he was accepted as a war painter in the art group of the Austro-Hungarian war press quarter . This happened at the instigation of the poet Richard von Schaukal , also Ministerialrat in the Ministry of Public Works, who considered Kolig “the most important talent among young Austrian painters”. Kolig worked on the Carinthian front with the 10th Army in the Flitscher basin. The end of 1917 gave him the Carinthian Governor Leopold Freiherr von Aichelburg-Labia the order for a gift for I. Emperor Karl certain triptych of Carinthia shooters. In 1918 he received several homework orders to continue this work, which was ended by the collapse of the monarchy . Finally, Kolig was able to complete four wings of the work, designed in the style of the Gothic altars. Kolig is recorded in the registry lists of the war press headquarters until February 13, 1918.

Of the works that Kolig made as a war painter, his portraits of generals and prisoners in particular caused a sensation, including in 1918 at a joint exhibition with Egon Schiele in Klagenfurt. For the portrait of General Gottfried Seibt he was awarded a gold medal in Düsseldorf in 1928 and the Austrian State Prize in 1936 .

He was also involved in the design of the new festival hall in Salzburg in 1926/27 with tapestries and a mosaic in the entrance hall. When he received two offers for professorships in Prague and Stuttgart in 1928, he decided on the Württemberg Academy in Stuttgart , where he trained a number of later important artists as the head of the painting class. In addition, his work was also recognized internationally and shown at numerous exhibitions.

After Kolig received the order in 1929 to paint the small state parliament hall in the Klagenfurt country house with frescoes , which he and his students had done in 1930, German national representatives demanded the removal of the frescoes at a meeting of the Carinthian state parliament on March 25, 1931, which was initially prevented . In 1935, however, the frescoes were hung, and in 1938, after the “ Anschluss ” of Austria, they were destroyed by the National Socialists, as was the mosaic in the Salzburg Festival Hall. Other works were also removed from galleries; Hitler himself is said to have spoken out against Kolig's late Expressionist art.

In 1943, in the course of political developments, Kolig was forced to retire as a professor in Stuttgart and finally returned to Nötsch. On December 17, 1944, Kolig and his family were buried in a bomb attack and seriously injured. A large part of his work was destroyed in the process. Kolig was a member of the Prague Secession .

Honors

Works (excerpt)

Anton Kolig is considered to be the most important representative of Austrian color expressionism. He created a total of around 3,000 drawings, 62 colored works on paper and 390 oil paintings, many of which have been lost. Due to his homoerotic inclination, he often dealt with the male nude, but also created portraits and still lifes. Many of his works also reflect Kolig's religiosity. Works by the painter are mainly in the Austrian Gallery, the Army History Museum and the Leopold Museum in Vienna, in the Essl Collection in Klosterneuburg and in the Carinthian State Gallery.

  • Silent Woman - Portrait of the Mother (Vienna, Leopold Museum , Inv.No. 2019), 1909, oil on canvas, 168.5 × 56 cm
  • Still life with apples and grapes (Vienna, Leopold Museum, inv. No.507), 1912, oil on canvas
  • Dancer (private property), 1913, oil on canvas, 156 × 69.5 cm
  • Still life with a turtle (Vienna, Leopold Museum, inv. No. 194), 1913, oil on canvas
  • Bertha Zuckerkandl, b. Szeps ( Wien Museum , inv.no.77.879), 1915, oil on canvas, 150 × 81 cm
  • Captain Boleslavski (Vienna, Leopold Museum, inv. No. 171), 1916, oil on canvas
  • Winter landscape at sunset (Vienna, Leopold Museum, inv. No. 183), 1917, oil on cardboard
  • Portrait of an Assault Soldier (Vienna, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum ), 1918, oil on canvas
  • Seated Youth - Am Morgen (Vienna, Leopold Museum, Inv.No. 406), 1919, oil on canvas, 152 × 93.1 cm
  • Reclining male nude in gray (Vienna, Leopold Museum, inv. No. 352), 1919, oil on canvas
  • The handicraft teacher (Vienna, Leopold Museum, inv. No. 353), 1920, oil on canvas
  • Sehnsucht (Vienna, Leopold Museum, Inv. No. 200), 1922, oil on canvas
  • Soaring Genius - Sketch for the ceiling painting of the fire hall Vienna (Vienna, Leopold Museum, Inv. No. 233), 1924, oil on canvas
  • Frescoes for the crematorium in Vienna, 1925
  • Spiegelakt (Vienna, Leopold Museum, inv. No.198), 1926, oil on canvas
  • Self-Portrait in a Blue Jacket (Vienna, Leopold Museum, Inv. No. 199), 1926, oil on canvas
  • Frescoes in the Klagenfurt country house, 1930
  • Das Pelzchen - The artist's daughter Antoinette (Vienna, Leopold Museum, Inv. No. 351), 1930, oil on canvas, 125 × 78.2 cm
  • Das Vergehen (Linz, Lentos Kunstmuseum), 1946, oil on canvas, 76 × 94 cm
  • Civilization III (Vienna, Leopold Museum, inv. No.185), 1947, oil on cardboard
  • The Sun Seekers (Vienna, Leopold Museum, Inv. No. 193), 1947, oil on canvas
  • The four Evangelists (Vienna, Leopold Museum, inv. No.355), 1948, oil on hardboard
  • Male Nude with a Snake (Vienna, Collection of the Austrian National Bank), 1949, oil on hardboard, 84.6 × 57 cm
  • Half-length portrait of a boy with a violin (Vienna, collection of the Austrian National Bank), around 1949, oil on cardboard, 53 × 43.5 cm
  • Reclining male nude on canvas in oil - Stuttgart, private property, around 1930
  • Portrait of Dr. Ensinger on canvas in oil - Stuttgart, private property, around 1930

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Walter Reichel: "Press work is propaganda work" - Media Administration 1914-1918: The War Press Quarter (KPQ) . Communications from the Austrian State Archives (MÖStA), special volume 13, Studienverlag, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-7065-5582-1 , p. 182.
  2. ↑ Liselotte Popelka: From Hurray to the corpse field. Paintings from the war picture collection 1914-1918. Vienna 1981, p. 56.
  3. ↑ Walter Reichel: "Press work is propaganda work" - Media Administration 1914-1918: The War Press Quarter (KPQ) . Communications from the Austrian State Archives (MÖStA), special volume 13, Studienverlag, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-7065-5582-1 , p. 182.
  4. ↑ Entry in the Baden-Württemberg State Bibliography , accessed on January 16, 2018

Web links

Commons : Anton Kolig  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Kolig, Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian painter
DATE OF BIRTH July 1, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Neutitschein
DATE OF DEATH May 17, 1950
Place of death Nötsch