Franz Grabmayr

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Franz Grabmayr (born April 19, 1927 in Pfaffenberg , Carinthia ; † May 8, 2015 in Vienna ) was an Austrian artist and representative of abstract painting between 1965 and 2015.

Life

Franz Grabmayr grew up as the youngest of three siblings on the Pfaffenberg near Obervellach in Carinthia. His childhood close to nature on the mountain farm later proved to be formative for his career as a painter. When he was twelve he began to paint watercolors.

Grabmayr, who works as a secondary school teacher in St. Jakob im Rosental, presented his talent to the public for the first time in 1952 in the exhibition “Young Carinthian Talents” in the Künstlerhaus Klagenfurt. Spurred on by the success, he completed his studies as a working student at the Academy of Fine Arts with Robin Christian Andersen from 1954 . In 1956 he met Ingrid Weimann in the Louvre in Paris in front of the picture of the Mona Lisa, whom he married the following year. 1957 son Thomas was born. Encouraged by his wife in his decision, Grabmayr stopped teaching in 1962 in order to devote himself entirely to painting. After graduating from the Academy with Herbert Boeckl in 1964, he moved into simple painter's quarters in the Lower Austrian Waldviertel that same year, which became his adopted home for the rest of his life. The first landscape pictures were created here in complete isolation in the middle of nature. From 1967 to 1969 he was assistant to Gustav Hessing at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna . In 1970 he received a scholarship from the Austrian federal government which enabled him to study in Venice for six months . In 1970 the second son Jakob was born.

Inspired by a pantomime that made him enthusiastic about the moving body, he began to paint his first "dance pictures" in the late 1960s: in winter in his studio in Vienna's Karl-Marx-Hof or in the Vienna State Opera during rehearsals and performances of ballet (until 1982), in summer in the Waldviertel. In nature, Grabmayr discovered other motifs that he focused on in his landscape painting: "Cornmandln" and "Strohbinkerln", rocks in the camp, or "root stocks" of trees.

DRIVING WORKSHOP.jpg

In the 1980s, Franz Grabmayr developed his “mobile workshop”: he let himself be driven around his motifs on a tractor, stood on the trailer with his easel and paint buckets and packed up to 100 kg of paint onto the canvas with the spatula. There were also nocturnal fire pictures, pictures with charred root stocks, as well as sand and ash pictures. Franz Grabmayr continued to develop his wild dance and landscape painting steadfastly and with his “mobile workshop” he was driven around large, blazing fireplaces, in front of which nude models often danced freely and naked. “The fire is so wild that you have to counter it with the same force. I threw the paint from the bucket onto the canvas: the power and ferocity of fire and my power and ferocity on the canvas. You can't just paint finely with a brush, ”is how he himself described this mighty adventure.

Between 1994 and 1996, Franz Grabmayr and his wife went to Carinthia, Greece and Italy for work stays. He was looking for the warmth, but also the light of the south for his art. In 1997 the family returned to the Waldviertel. From 2003 to 2008, Franz Grabmayr had to undergo some operations due to an illness, but he painted more pictures in nature until 2010. In 2012 the last “dance sheets” were created in the winter studio.

Franz Grabmayr died on May 8, 2015 after nine weeks in hospital. He was buried at the Ober Sankt Veiter cemetery .

plant

Franz Grabmayr's retreat into the seclusion of the Lower Austrian Waldviertel was the result of a personal necessity. At the same time, it was an important step in setting the course in his oeuvre.

In the 1960s, the painter based his “Green Pictures” on the Cézanne color palette. Composed of innumerable shades of green observed in nature, they stand at the beginning of the work. The picture space already exceeds the surface of the canvas and makes a potentially infinite space tangible.

Grabmayr initially only used natural tones in his “Sand Pits” paintings, which were inspired by Rembrandt. He explained the further development of this series in an interview as follows: “First, as with the green variations, I painted the earth, ocher, brown variations ...” However: “… something has changed with me spiritually or creatively or emotionally changed. ”The intense vision revealed“ to see the violets inside my sand pits and to see the yellows on the heights ... So I tried to harmonize the pure colors with the landscape. ”

On the occasion of the exhibition “Franz Grabmayr. From the sand pit. Pictures 1966 - 1970 ”in the Würthle Gallery In 1971, the art historian Otto Breicha wrote of“ a resolute painting of hearty colors up to a color form attachment that could very well be considered an abstract surface composition ”. And further: “Grabmayr's aim is to show substance, tamed matter, heavy-blooded earth colors at first. His finger-thick coated color reliefs contribute to the colored appearance, the wrinkled edges as something actually understandable ... With rare tenacity he demanded the essentials of a motif thirty times. Without repeating as much as possible in order to advance as possible. "

In his pictorial motifs from the 1970s, Grabmayr dealt with the increasingly repressed forms of pre-industrial agriculture and captured them metaphorically in his pictures. When the “Kornmandln” and “Strohbinkerln” gradually disappeared from the landscape, he paid farmers who still had the necessary knowledge to recreate them for him. So it is also an ecological work.

In the paintings, which have become more and more pastose over the years, material found on site, such as stalks of grain, sand or ash, can be found mixed into the pigment in a clearly recognizable manner. For the material artist, surfaces and colors became a means of design. Grabmayr's spontaneous painting actions were always preceded by the long process of looking in nature, in front of the motif. His material was also well prepared, he mixed his colors himself so that they could withstand his dynamic painting processes as best as possible. Thick layers of paint were applied with great vehemence with the spatula next to and on top of each other and, if disapproved, scraped off again just as quickly. He used the bulk of the color in the knowledge that it would behave like lava and would continue to work on the - often 60 kg - pictures for months.

“It is this energy of the act of painting that is imprinted on the body of the picture and that distinguishes Franz Grabmayr from all others who find their most essential medium of expression in the materiality of color. The material painting by Gaston Chaisac, Jean Fautrier, Jean Dubuffet, Antoni Tapiès or Alberto Burri, on the other hand, is static ”, said Klaus Albrecht Schröder in the accompanying catalog in 2002 on the occasion of the Franz Grabmayr exhibition he curated in the Upper Belvedere.

From 1970 on, dance pictures were created parallel to the work in nature. They became the second central theme in Franz Grabmayr's work, in a wide variety of techniques and formats. It soon became apparent that the impasto oil painting had its limits in the face of the moving dancers. In the studio, the painter tried out more fluid inks, fabric and watercolors, lighter image carriers such as Molino and paper, and worked with thick brushes. Grabmayr's “dance sheets” sessions can be described as a counterpoint to static nude model drawing. “The figure is actually torn apart when a dancer works very dynamically. If she moves more slowly, to a different type of music, the images become more planar ... The dancers have to be completely identical to the music. Then the spark jumps over, ”said Grabmayr, describing these studio sessions.

Franz Grabmayr is also often referred to as a contemporary painter of the four elements. Because from the 1980s onwards, his “traveling workshop” (see Life, note) not only brought dynamism and multiple perspectives from dance painting into play, but also blazing fires mixed with earth, sky and water in his world of motifs. As the highlight of this section of his work, fire and dance finally found a unity in nightly sessions and in his pictures.

After working in Carinthia, Greece and Italy, Franz Grabmayr took up his motifs in nature when he returned to the Waldviertel in 1997, and in winter more dance sheets were created in the studio in Karl-Marx-Hof. “Around 2006, the airy quarry pictures were added, in which the monochrome white picture carrier remains visible just like in the late dance pictures. Spread over a large area and influenced by Matisse, these paintings and sheets 'only' modulate the white with a few bright colors and charcoal strokes - a sign of the highest mastery. A repetition of Paul Cézanne's late work seems to have taken place here in a very independent, postmodern way. The image carrier's own light is differentiated through the painting and its meaning is emphasized. This visual effect is called aérien in French, which, in the sense of 'supernatural', means more than just 'airy'. Grabmayr's oeuvre finally became one of the central works of post-abstract painting, ”said Robert Fleck and Caro Wiesauer, the curators of the 2017 retrospective at Museum Angerlehner, describing the late work in the catalog.

Awards

Exhibitions (selection)

Solo exhibitions
  • 1967 Künstlerhaus Vienna: Franz Grabmayr and Otto Eder
  • 1968 Künstlerhaus Klagenfurt: Oil paintings and drawings
  • 1973 Vienna Secession Gallery: Dance and Landscape
  • 1977 Vienna Secession main room: Landscapes and figures
  • 1980 Österreichische Postsparkasse, headquarters in Vienna: Franz Grabmayr
  • 1987 Galerie Michael Haas Berlin: paintings from 1966 to 1986
  • 1988 Gunzenhauser Gallery in Munich: Franz Grabmayr - oil paintings
  • 1988 Sander Darmstadt Gallery: Franz Grabmayr - paintings
  • 1989 Heike Curtze Gallery Vienna: Pictures from the sand pit and fire pictures 1983 - 1988
  • 1990 Galerie Heike Curtze Düsseldorf: Pictures from the sand pit and fire pictures 1984–1989
  • 1990 Galerie Michael Haas Berlin: New works 1986 to 1989
  • 1991 Galerie Heike Curtze Vienna: dance pictures - works on paper
  • 1993 Austrian Gallery Belvedere, the Heike Curtze and Michael Haas galleries in the studio at the Ambrosi Museum Vienna Augarten: Franz Grabmayr In the shadow of nature Oil paintings and works on paper 1963-1993
  • 1997 Galerie Heike Curtze Vienna: Querüber - painting from 1965–1997
  • 2002 Austrian Gallery Belvedere in the Upper Belvedere Vienna: Franz Grabmayr on his 75th birthday
  • 2003 Art Cologne: Presentation of oil paintings by Galerie Brockstedt, Hamburg
  • 2003 Galerie Brockstedt Berlin: Franz Grabmayr 1978-2003
  • 2004 Galerie Brockstedt Hamburg: Oil paintings - color inks
  • 2004 Galerie Welz Salzburg: Landscapes and dance pictures
  • 2007 gallery exhibitions for his 80th birthday at Hartmann Vienna, Magnet Klagenfurt and Welz Salzburg
  • 2010 Galerie Welz Salzburg: Franz Grabmayr
  • 2012 Galerie Ernst Hilger Vienna: Landscapes and Dance
  • 2015 Galerie Welz Salzburg: Oil paintings and colored inks
  • 2016 Galerie Artziwna Vienna: special presentation Franz Grabmayr
  • 2016 Cologne Fine Art: Galerie Artemons Hellmonsödt Franz Grabmayr
  • 2017 Museum Angerlehner Thalheim / Wels: Franz Grabmayr: fire pictures - dance sheets - material pictures. For the 90th birthday
Group exhibitions
  • 1967 Vienna Secession: The Blue Eagle
  • 1968 Vienna Secession: Secession 68
  • 1974 Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam: Vienna
  • 1982 Austrian Gallery Belvedere Vienna: Austrian modern painting
  • 1982 Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt: The Vienna Secession 1982
  • 1991 Museum des 20. Jhdts Wien (today 21er Haus): Image light - painting between material and immateriality
  • 1991 Kunstforum Wien: The Decade of Painting - Austria 1980-1990
  • 1995 Michael Haas Gallery, Berlin: Malwut and passion
  • 1995 Michael Haas Gallery, Berlin: Herbert Brandl - Franz Grabmayr. New pictures
  • 1998 Vienna Secession: 100 years of the Secession. The century of artistic freedom
  • 1998 City Art Museum Helsinki: The Century of Artistic Freedom
  • 2000 Kunsthalle Krems: Waldmüller, Schiele, Rainer - masterpieces from the Lower Austrian State Museum
  • 2001 Museum of Fine Arts Budapest: Painting - Austrian Artists - Now
  • 2004 Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg: Neue Wilde - A development
  • 2007 Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg: Passion for Art
  • 2008 Albertina, Vienna: AFTER 1970 - Austrian art from the Albertina
  • 2009 Albertina, Vienna: Modern masterpieces from the Batliner collection
  • 2011 Leopold Museum, Vienna: The Excitement Continues. Contemporary art from the Leopold II Collection
  • 2013 Kunsthalle Osnabrück: Landscape after 2000
  • 2014 Albertina, Vienna: Francis Bacon to Gerhard Richter from the Albertina
  • 2015 Albertina, Vienna: Abstraction in Austria, 1960 to today - from the Ploner collection
  • 2015 Expo Chicago: Galerie Hilger Wien shows dance sheets
  • 2015 Art Miami: Galerie Hilger Vienna shows dance sheets
  • 2016 Art Karlsruhe: Representative of Austrian abstraction - at Galerie Hilger Vienna
  • 2016 Neue Galerie Graz: Painting in Transition - The Ploner Collection

Public collections (selection)

  • Albertina, Vienna
  • Artothek des Bundes, 21er Haus Vienna
  • Belvedere, Vienna
  • Lower Austrian State Museum, St. Pölten
  • Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation, Vienna
  • Museum of Modern Art Carinthia (MMKK), Klagenfurt
  • Museum Liaunig, Neuhaus
  • Essl Collection, Klosterneuburg / Vienna
  • Leopold II Collection, Vienna
  • Artcollection Strabag, Vienna
  • MUSA, Art Collection of the City of Vienna
  • Admont Abbey, Museum of Contemporary Art
  • Collection of the Neue Galerie Graz
  • Batliner Collection, Vienna

literature

  • Robert Fleck, Caro Wiesauer: Franz Grabmayr: Feuerbilder - Tanzblätter - Materialbilder , retrospective on the occasion of the artist's 90th birthday in the Museum Angerlehner, 2017, Verlag Snoeck, Cologne, ISBN 978-3-86442-206-5
  • Wolfgang Hingst: Franz Grabmayr: Power - Passion - Obsession , interview with the artist 2001, published in 2016 by the Grabmayr estate
  • Klaus A. Schröder, Monika Ziwna: Franz Grabmayr , 2016, editor: Galerie Artziwna
  • Herwig Dunzendorfer: Franz Grabmayr , with texts by Carl Aigner and Klaus Albrecht Schröder, 2016, published by Artemons Contemporary, ISBN 978-3-900178-23-9
  • Jürgen Schilling: Franz Grabmayr: Color turned into image. Movement Became Image 1978-1992 , published in 2003 by Galerie Brockstedt, ISBN 3-920365-32-1 , ISBN 978-3-920365-32-9
  • Klaus A. Schröder: Franz Grabmayr , on the occasion of the exhibition of the Austrian Gallery Belvedere on the occasion of the 75th birthday, 2002, Edition Minerva Wolfratshausen, ISBN 3-932353-67-6
  • Franz Grabmayr: In the shadow of nature , edited by Heike Curtze and Michael Haas, contributors: Gerbert Frodl, Gerhard Fischer, Marianne Blüml, 1998, Kerber Christof Verlag, ISBN 3-924639-26-4 , ISBN 978-3-924639-26 -6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Der Standard: artist Franz Grabmayr died ; accessed on May 8, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b c Wolfgang Hingst: Power - Passion - Obsession . Ed .: Estate of Franz Grabmayr. Vienna 2016, p. 72 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e website Franz Grabmayr. Retrieved May 8, 2017 .
  4. ^ Olga Kronsteiner: artist Franz Grabmayr died. Der Standard, May 8, 2015, accessed May 8, 2017 .
  5. ^ Franz Grabmayr grave site , Vienna, Ober Sankt Veiter Friedhof, Group C, Row 6, No. 1.
  6. ^ A b Robert Fleck, Caro Wiesauer: Franz Grabmayr: fire pictures - dance sheets - material pictures . Ed .: Estate of Franz Grabmayr, Vienna. 1st edition. Snoeck, Cologne 2017, ISBN 978-3-86442-206-5 , p. 183 .
  7. ^ Otto Breicha: Franz Grabmayr. From the sand pit. Pictures 1966-1970 . Ed .: Galerie Würthle. Vienna 1971.
  8. ↑ Klaus A. Schröder: The weight of painting and the transparency of the body in "Franz Grabmayr" . Ed .: Austrian Gallery Belvedere. 1st edition. Minerva, Wolfratshausen 2002, ISBN 3-932353-67-6 , p. 163 .
  9. ↑ Robert Wlattnig: Department of Art History Carinthia. (PDF) State Museum for Carinthia, accessed on May 8, 2017 .
  10. ↑ LH Pröll presented Lower Austria Culture Awards 2007 . APA notification dated Nov. 24, 2007; accessed on May 8, 2015.
  11. ↑ Person encyclopedia of the Landesmuseum Niederösterreich: Franz Grabmayr ; accessed on May 8, 2015.
  12. ^ Archives of the Belvedere: Grabmayr Franz ; accessed on May 8, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Grabmayr, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian painter
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Pfaffenberg (municipality of Obervellach)
DATE OF DEATH May 8, 2015
Place of death Vienna