Erich Huber (artist)

Erich Huber (born November 9, 1916 in Vienna ; † January 14, 1996 ibid) was an Austrian artist and educator.

Erich Huber, 1983 at the Forum Alpbach

Life

Erich Huber was born in 1916 as the second son of the psychiatrist Alfons Huber and Huberta, b. Born in Röck. He was a grandson of the historian Alfons Huber . Because of his initially weak constitution (he was born prematurely in the middle of the First World War ), E. Huber was taught at home by his parents for the first four years of school. From 1926 he attended boarding school in the Jesuit college in Kalksburg and in 1931 finally moved to the Albertus Magnus Realgymnasium in Vienna XVIII, Semperstrasse, where he graduated in 1936. During this time he also became a member of the Catholic youth movement Bund Neuland, for whose font Neue Jugend he made illustrations and met his future wife Elisabeth (née von Stockert) there.

1936–1939 he studied painting with Karl Sterrer and wall painting with Herbert Dimmel at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna . Due to his conscription to the German Wehrmacht (air intelligence force and paratroopers) at the beginning of the war , he had to interrupt his studies. In 1941 he married. In the last days of the war (April 12, 1945) he was seriously wounded in Breslau , was initially paraplegic and only slowly learned to walk again. He spent 1 ½ years in Soviet captivity; first in the hospital in Wroclaw, then from April 1946 in a camp in Jewlach , Azerbaijan . In September 1946 he returned home to Austria as an invalid.

He immediately continued his art studies at the academy and after graduating in 1948 became assistant to Albert Paris Gütersloh , whom he helped set up a fresco school. In 1955 he became a senior university assistant and until 1962 took over the management of the vacant master’s school on an interim basis. In 1964 the fresco school was relocated to the University of Applied Arts as a "teaching workshop for art in architecture" and joined Carl Unger's master class for painting, graphics and glass painting . In 1966 Huber received a professorship at the University of Applied Arts.

E. Huber retired in 1977, but held lectures on "wall painting techniques" at the University of Applied Arts until 1981. In the late 1950s he also turned to the medium of television. Initially with contributions to the children's programs “We leaf through the picture book” and then with our own series “Visual Education”. From 1982 he was involved in adult education for ten years.

From 1993 he was no longer able to continue teaching due to his poor health. He died in 1996 and is buried at the Dornbacher Friedhof in Vienna.

Meaning and distinction

Erich Huber was denied the big breakthrough as an artist throughout his life. Its orientation towards religious topics ran counter to the secular mainstream in the artistic circles of the post-war period. Even the modernization impulse of the Church through the Second Vatican Council could not change anything. Always on the lookout for new artistic forms of expression, he did not develop a pronounced personal style that could have been marketed.

From 1949 a member of the Vienna Secession , he was a profound expert on all techniques, especially fresco painting , devoted himself to experiments and developments, especially with new materials and image carriers (collages on plasterboards, workpieces made of polyester laminates that could be assembled, colored structures on Eternit boards coated with adhesive emulsion mortar, etc. .) and developed a number of new processes such as a fresco buono that can be transported despite its heavy weight.

In 1951, with the acquisition of Huber's work (Die Phäaken, 1951) by the City of Vienna, the foundation stone was laid for the establishment of the contemporary art collection of the City of Vienna's cultural department.

Huber achieved his actual importance in his teaching activities and in his political functions in the professional representation . He was president of the professional association of Austrian visual artists as well as initiator and, together with Adolf Frohner , founding member of the Austrian collecting society of visual artists (VBK, 1977).

In 1977 he received the Cross of Honor for Science and Art .

Works (excerpts)

Visual arts

• Protective mantle Madonna (bronze sculpture), designed in 1960, executed posthumously in 2000: Lernet-Holenia Park, Vienna-Dornbach
• Isaiah's prophecy (smalt mosaic), 1962: Schafbergkirche , Vienna (Concha)
• Altar cross (brass, glass stone), 1962: Schafbergkirche, Vienna
• Stained glass window, 1963: Feldkirch-Altenstadt parish church , Vorarlberg
• Flag of the Cross (canvas, felt - 16 flags), 1966: private property
• The conversation with the earth (acrylic on canvas, 330 × 95), 1967: private property
• Man in the wine press War victims memorial (sandstone, wood), 1968: Rupertusplatz, Vienna-Dornbach
• St. Severin house sign (wrought iron), 1969: Rupertusplatz, Vienna-Dornbach
• Mobile prayer room (paravents - room installation) 1972: Olympic site, Munich
• The Creation (triptych - acrylic on canvas), 1976: private property
• Golgotha (glass window), 1978: Dornbach parish church , Rupertusplatz, Vienna

Specialist publications

• Body and Space , Visual Education I, Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1973
• Image and composition , Visual Education II, Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1976
• Spirit and Development , Visual Education III, Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1980
• The development of the dimensions of thought , Neuwaldegger Protocols, Issue 22, Vienna 1995

Television productions

• We leaf through picture books (children's programs: Der kleine Muck, Pablo und seine Grille, etc.), 1960–1974, ORF Vienna
• Visual education (6 episodes), 1982, ORF, Vienna

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Museum on Demand (PDF file, p. 68; 4.1 MB)

Web links

Commons : Erich Huber  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Description of E. Huber's activity at the University of Applied Arts by C. Unger from February 1985 Workshops for Techniques of Art within Architecture - The Employees ( Memento from March 26, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 154 kB)