Engelbert Kliemstein

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Engelbert Kliemstein with signature around 1961

Engelbert Kliemstein (born September 4, 1934 in Margarethen near Grieskirchen , † July 2, 1961 in Linz ) was an artist and unconventional gallery owner , as well as co-founder of the artist group Schableder and namesake for the Kliemsteinhaus .

Live and act

He is considered a pioneer of Linz's private galleries and also attracted attention with events that were previously unusual for galleries.

After completing school , he began his artistic training at the age of 15 at the Linz Federal Trade School in the arts and crafts department. After three years, in 1952 he moved to the still new art school - today Linz University of Art - and studied two semesters in the master class sculpture and three semesters in the master class for free graphics.

In the fall of 1955 he left school and became a tug sailor for the Danube Steamship Company . After only a year he quit his job there and went on a two-year trip through Europe, where he briefly worked as a gardener in Switzerland and then hitchhiked through France and Spain .

In 1958 he returned and founded the "Schableder artist group" with Otto Bejvl , Josef Fischnaller and Erich Ruprecht .

He put his own art work on hold , and in July they opened the “ Galerie Schableder” at Ottensheimer Strasse 16 , which was soon renamed “Galerie Kliemstein”. This gallery was the city's first private gallery since 1945 and achieved a high status and influence in the regional cultural scene, as it also offered space for readings and theater performances, which is still rare today. After Kliemstein's early death, Otto Bejvl took over the gallery and ran it first in Badgasse, then on Hofgasse.

Up until his death, Kliemstein held a total of 16 art exhibitions. Among others, Karl Stark , Egon Hofmann , Franz Öhner , Peter Kubovsky , Josef Häupl , Elfriede Trautner and Ernst Reischenböck exhibited with him. He also paid special attention to the work of his friends Bejvl, Fischnaller and Ruprecht.

Poetry readings with Franz Kain , Franz Rieger and Franz Josef Heinrich were held, and a theatrical performance with Eugène Ionesco's tutoring was dared.

The exhibition on the 5th anniversary of the death of the painter and draftsman Rudolf Baschant , a witness and descendant of the Bauhaus , was a cultural act .

Engelbert Kliemstein died on July 2, 1961 in a car accident on the Pöstlingberg in Linz.