Franz Drapela

Franz Drapela (born November 25, 1924 in Vienna , † May 13, 2009 in Berndorf ) was an Austrian painter and sculptor.

Drapela studied painting and graphics with Christian Ludwig Martin at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts . For many years he worked as a painter and sculptor at the Austrian federal theaters . In the 1970s he moved to Neulengbach .

Drapela's works deal with religious content and with things that cannot be seen. In the early 1970s he began to deal with philosophical questions. During this epoch, panels such as The View to Elsewhere , The Purification Path of Mankind or The Great Surprise During Passage were created .

“... my pictures are mirrors of the waking state of my mind. They show my growth in the realm of knowledge. Because I believe in the visible and the invisible world. I try to enrich my knowledge from this world view perspective more and more with the ideological - symbolic subject of esotericism. By taking into account the suggestive forces of colors, lines and surfaces in the composition, I can achieve strong, tense conservation of my ideas. This is the mental-astral realism. "

- Franz Drapela

Marienkirche Berndorf

Interior view of the Marienkirche in Berndorf

As part of the general renovation of St. Mary's Church in Berndorf , Drapela completely redesigned the interior. He created new stained glass windows, a tabernacle , the altar table of the popular altar made of Margareten sandstone , a portrait of St. Anthony and a memorial with the dying soldier. The dominant design element is the way of the cross in black and white tones with its larger than life figures and their angular and expressive faces. The images of the individual stations of the cross merge into one another without sharp boundaries. In two long ribbons they cover both side walls of the single-nave church from the floor to the lower edge of the pointed arch windows over almost the full length of the nave. The Way of the Cross is 35 meters long and 2.80 meters high. At the end there is a winged altar with depictions of the birth, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, when closed an Ecce homo can be seen. With the Way of the Cross, painted in 1966, Drapela achieved his breakthrough as a painter.

Works

• Way of the Cross in the Marienkirche in Berndorf in Lower Austria, 1966
• Creation story on seven panels, in German private ownership, 1970

Mortuary rats, 1973

• Cemetery in Ratten , 1973
• The funeral hall in Kasten near Böheimkirchen , 1988
• Façade of the Neulengbach pharmacy “To the Holy Trinity”, 2000
• Family Way of the Cross in the Liebfrauenhof, Neulengbach
• Book illustration for the poetry volume Gedankensplitter by Karl Raab

Drapela Art Prix

On his 80th birthday, Franz Drapela donated the Drapela Art Prix , which will be awarded every two years from 2006 onwards. The prize is intended to promote contemporary art and is endowed with 30,000 euros in prize money. Erich Drapela, son of the founder, is responsible for the implementation of the Art Prix.

The first prize winner was the Norwegian Jette van der Lende in 2007 in Burgau in Styria.

Honors

• Silver Füger Medal from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
• Price Lorenzo il Magnifico for Lifetime Achievement, awarded at the Biennial of Contemporary Art in Florence in 2003
• Ring of Honor of the Neulengbach community, 2004
• Cross of Honor for Science and Art of the Republic of Austria , 2004
• Gold medal of merit of the state of Lower Austria

Exhibitions

• Burgau in Styria, December 2009: Franz Drapela "Painter and Philosopher"

literature

• Helene Schießl, Erwin Schindler: Berndorfer Gemeindechronik, published on the occasion of 100 years of the city of Berndorf . Ed .: City of Berndorf. Pages 230-235

Web links

Commons : Franz Drapela  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Erich Drapela: Painter and philosopher Franz Drapela has left the "real world"! (PDF; 1.8 MB) In: st.henna aktuell. 2009, p. 2 , accessed January 5, 2011 . 
• Franz Drapela. In: artkoffer.com. Retrieved January 6, 2011 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Erich Drapela: Painter and philosopher Franz Drapela has left the "real world"! (PDF; 1.8 MB) In: st.henna aktuell. 2009, p. 2 , accessed January 5, 2011 . 
2. ↑ Franz Drapela. In: artkoffer.com. Retrieved January 6, 2011 . 
3. ↑ The community mourns the loss of a great Neulengbacher Prof. Mag. Art Franz Drapela. May 19, 2009. Retrieved May 30, 2012 . 
4. ^ Catalog of the German National Library , ISBN 3-85438-001-1
5. ↑ Little known painter becomes art patron. derStandard.at, February 8, 2005, accessed January 6, 2011 . 
6. ↑ New prize for contemporary art awarded in Burgau. derStandard.at, May 8, 2007, accessed on January 6, 2011 . 
7. ↑ European Masters Of Modern Art - EMMA 2007. (No longer available online.) 2007, archived from the original on January 11, 2016 ; Retrieved April 30, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ ^{a b} Honor - Mag. Art Franz Drapela. In: Internet presence of the municipality of Neulengbach. Retrieved January 6, 2011 . 
9. ↑ Franz Drapela "painter and philosopher". (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 15, 2009 ; Retrieved January 5, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.