Benjamin Strasser (painter)

Benjamin Strasser (born June 21, 1888 in Vienna , † September 18, 1955 in New York ) was an Austrian painter and graphic artist .

Life

Strasser was the son of the sculptor and painter Arthur Strasser . From 1905 to 1912 he studied at the Vienna Academy under Franz Rumpler and Siegmund L'Allemand . Study trips took him to Paris , Holland , Germany and Switzerland . From 1912 Strasser was based in Munich , where he was also a member and juror of the Munich Artists' Cooperative.

During the First World War , Strasser had to join the Landsturm in 1915 and in December of the same year asked for admission as a war painter to the art group of the Austro-Hungarian War Press Office , which was granted on January 12, 1916. His first excursions took him to the Russian theater of war , in 1917 to the Carpathian Mountains , to Albania and to the Isonzo Front . In the spring and summer of 1918 he worked in the army group of Colonel General Svetozar Boroëvić von Bojna am Piave . Strasser also supplied posters for war bonds . Benjamin Strasser was listed in the war press headquarters until December 1918.

Strasser was a member of the Reich Association of Fine Artists in Germany and was awarded the Trebitsch Prize. Before the National Socialists he had to flee to England via Switzerland. Finally he emigrated to the United States in 1953.

His brother Roland Strasser was also a painter and graphic artist.

Works (selection)

• Machine gun as anti-aircraft defense on the Campanile of Seren (northern Italy) , pencil and colored chalk on paper, 28 × 27 cm ( Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Vienna)
• Feltre airfield (Northern Italy) , pencil and colored chalk on paper, 27 × 39.5 cm (Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Wien)
• 30.5 cm mortar near Kirlibala in the Carpathians , 1917, oil on canvas, 61.5 × 51 cm (Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Wien)
• 10 cm M1914 field howitzer in position on the Piave 1918 , 1918, oil on canvas, 70.5 × 96.5 cm (Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Wien)
• Aid place , oil on canvas, 110 × 135 cm (Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Vienna)

literature

• Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of the visual artists of the 20th century. Seemann, Leipzig 1962, Volume 6, pp. 435f.
• Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Military Science Institute): Flies 90/71 , exhibition catalog, Volume II: Flies in the First World War, paintings and drawings. Vienna 1971.
• Gabriele Koller, Gloria Withalm: The expulsion of the spiritual from Austria. On the cultural policy of National Socialism. Verlag Zentralsparkasse und Kommerzialbank, Vienna 1985, p. 192.
• Liselotte Popelka: From hurray to the corpse field. Paintings from the war picture collection 1914-1918. Vienna 1981

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. 184.
2. ↑ Österreichisches Heeresmuseum (Ed.): Catalog of the war picture gallery of the Austrian Army Museum , Vienna 1923, p. 2
3. ↑ Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Military Science Institute): Flying 90/71 . Exhibition catalog, Volume II: Flying in the First World War, paintings and drawings. Vienna 1971, p. 46.
4. ↑ Liselotte Popelka: From Hurray to the corpse field. Paintings from the war picture collection 1914-1918. Vienna 1981, pp. 30, 50.
5. ^ Ernest Wilder Spaulding: The quiet invaders. The story of the Austrian impact upon America. Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1968, p. 220.