Franz Hagenauer

Franz Hagenauer (born February 23, 1906 in Vienna , † September 26, 1986 in Salzburg ) was an Austrian sculptor .

Life

Franz Hagenauer Torso 1929 (Photo Im Kinsky)

As a twelve-year-old, Hagenauer attended a youth course with Franz Cizek at the Vienna School of Applied Arts . From 1921 he studied sculpture with Anton Hanak and Josef Hoffmann . After completing his training and doing a few study trips, he joined his father's metal workshop in 1926. In 1928, after his death, Karl Hagenauer , Franz's brother , took over the business. In addition to his sculptural work, Franz Hagenauer now also created designs for the workshop's products. At the age of 25 he was accepted into the important circle of artists of the Vienna Secession . His work was recognized at several international exhibitions in Paris, Milan, Venice and Vienna. The world war interrupted his work abruptly, he was drafted as early as 1939.

In the post-war period, Salzburg became the center of his life. The product range of the workshop now also included work in wood, modern design and applied arts. Franz Hagenauer became the Salzburg State Guild Master in 1946. At the end of the 1940s, the economic upswing also began in eastern Austria, but for private reasons, the center of his life moved back to Vienna. In December 1949 he married Ingeborg. The daughter Claudia was born the following year, the younger daughter Caja in 1952. Franz Hagenauer received the culture award for applied arts of the city of Vienna and in 1955 was appointed a member of the board of the Austrian Werkbund. His brother Karl died unexpectedly in March 1956 and Franz Hagenauer had to take over the management of the workshop.

In 1962, Franz Hagenauer was appointed professor for free design in metal at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Later he also took on a class for enamel work. With the assumption of this new task came a reflection on his actual calling. Franz Hagenauer again devoted himself increasingly to these independent, driven sculptures. In 1971, an extensive exhibition about the Hagenauer workshop took place in the Museum of Applied Art . In the catalog, the sculptor Fritz Wotruba wrote a very personal eulogy that ends with the words: “ (...) as long as a person lives he should continue his cause. Franz Hagenauer should continue his cause. ” The new works were a continuation of his sculptural work of the 1930s. In this late phase, new, expressive works were created. He experimented with a wide variety of techniques. Franz Hagenauer died of heart failure in Salzburg on September 26, 1986. He was buried at the Ober Sankt Veiter cemetery .

plant

Reduced head sculpture 1937

Franz Hagenauer developed his significant style in sculpture during his training under Anton Hanak and Josef Hoffmann. During the holidays he worked under Dagobert Peche in the “ Wiener Werkstätte ” and in 1923 received an advertised price for work in chased metal. At the end of his training, he was represented in 1925 with two relief panels at the trend-setting Paris World Exhibition “Exposition des Arts Décoratifs”. Franz Hagenauer was given a leave of absence for three months in the winter of the last academic year. At the same time, he had created two further exhibits for the Hagenauer workshop with the figure of a kneeling knight and a heraldic eagle. These early works are particularly impressive in terms of their craftsmanship. Artistically, the 19-year-old was still very much adapted to the traditional. The creations of that time still looked a bit “ hard, awkward and intentional” , as the art magazine “German Art and Decoration” criticized. But he soon got rid of the "tinny" nature of the very early works.

Copper sculpture with abstract enamel glaze, approx. 1975 (Photo Im Kinsky)

Several stays abroad in Paris, Berlin and Rome conveyed the zeitgeist of modernism to Franz Hagenauer and made him familiar with Art Déco and the Bauhaus style . His new work documented these formal languages. He achieved early mastery in both New Objectivity and Neoclassicism styles in the late 1920s. A photograph from the family estate can be classified as around 1928. On the left you can see a semi-plastic male head tilted backwards, the two halves of the face different, so that an exciting simultaneous view results. Franz Hagenauer thus achieves the simultaneity of a consideration from different points of view. A few years ago still in the collection of Pop Art artist Andy Warhol , he came back to Vienna and is now in the Museum of the Leopold Collection . In the photo on the right: the semi-nude of a young woman with a slightly tilted head and lowered eyelids is also a masterpiece. The artist dispensed with decorative ornaments and limited himself to a clear design language. The facial features in the style of Modigliani correspond to the zeitgeist of modernity. A very similar version is now in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna. A young man's torso, embossed in copper, is an examination of the fragmentation of the body. This neoclassical work is a high point in his early creative period. In the Austrian pavilion "Exposition d 'Art Autrichienne" at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937, it is one of the main works of Austrian art of this era.

His work in the early 30s is characterized by the artistic confrontation between neoclassicism , the new objectivity , Art Deco and design drafts for the “Werkstätte Hagenauer”. Analogous to the international development, some major works are created in a monumental, spiritualized realism. The architect Adolf Loos dies in 1933. Franz Hagenauer creates the driven, monumental “Loos head”. Despite its size, the sculpture is an extremely realistic representation. Today it is in the permanent exhibition of the Leopold Collection in the Museumsquartier Vienna. Also assigned to this creative period is a naturalistic male head made of copper and carved with rare perfection. It was exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1934, was donated by the “Julius Reich Artist Foundation” and is now in the Austrian National Gallery in the Upper Belvedere .

The further development now takes place radically on the artistic level. Franz Hagenauer followed the zeitgeist of post-expressionism and found a comprehensive abstraction. The renouncement of everything insignificant led to the clear form. Not the things themselves, but the empathy for the essence of things was now the content and expression of his works and led to a radical reduction to the essential. These unusual works are the most important for the entire life's work. They are often supplemented by a minimal detail. The extraordinary faceless heads and figures later became his most sought-after works of art.

The world war suddenly slowed this creative period. The post-war period was shaped by economic necessities, and his art took a back seat. He was chosen to design a large federal eagle for the parliament in Vienna and to make it out of chased metal. Franz Hagenauer only regained his unrestrained creative power when he was granted a professorship at the university. The works have now become more delicate, the figures mostly elongated and often supplemented with ribbons or significant details. He worked intermittently for years on a female torso as a counterpart to his masculine early work.

Stimulated by the success of the exhibition in the Museum of Applied Arts and the inspiring words of Fritz Wotruba , the thirst for action increased. He was constantly on the lookout for innovation, and new ideas were always implemented. Among the late highlights of his work are some innovative head sculptures. The strong expressiveness results from the radical reduction and the interplay of material and technology.

Hagenauer workshop in Vienna

Carl Hagenauer founded the workshop in 1898, mainly the traditional Viennese bronzes were produced. After his death in 1928, the children Karl, Franz and Grete took over the business. Karl Hagenauer was in charge of company management and he switched production to small, expressive brass figures that continued the tradition in a modern form. In the style of Art Deco and the new objectivity, high-quality small sculptures made of cast brass were created, which manifested the economic success of the workshop over the years. These designs for large series are mainly attributable to Karl Hagenauer, while Franz mainly designed exclusive metal sculptures and design objects. A large part of the production was already exported worldwide. Due to this success, similar work by the companies Auböck, Baller and Rohac later came onto the market. Julius Jirasek expanded the Hagenauer workshop program to include small, modern furniture. From 1947 onwards, the range was expanded to include decorative figures made of wood. 1956, after the death of Karl Hagenauer, Franz Hagenauer took over the management of the workshop. The production of small sculptures was greatly reduced. The focus was now on design objects made of metal and the hand-driven metal sculptures.

The foremen Ernst Jessineg ensured the quality of the production from 1935 to 1975, then Karl Schmidt until the closure in 1987. The objects of the Hagenauer workshop were hallmarked with the workshop symbol WHW. Selected works were also signed after the designer with “FRANZ” or “KARL”, or with FH or KH.

Awards and exhibitions

• 1925 “Exposition International des Arts Décoratifs”, Paris
• 1928 Wiener Künstlerhaus - Christmas show
• 1930 Triennale di Milano
• 1931 member of the Vienna Secession and the art show
• 1934 20th Venice Biennale
• 1937 World Exhibition "Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne", Paris
• 1950 Culture Prize of the City of Vienna for applied arts
• 1948, 1951, 1955, 1957, 1960 Triennale in Milan or Monza
• 1958 World Exhibition in Brussels
• 1971 Exhibition at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna
• 1986 Memorial exhibition at the Galerie Würthle Vienna
• 2011 Exhibition in the Otto Wagner “Sparcassensaal” of the BAWAG Foundation, Vienna

literature

• Franz Hagenauer . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 2 : E-J . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1955, p. 353 .
• Marcus Antonius Kutschak: Franz Hagenauer: Biography and figural work - attempt at an art-historical positioning . Diploma thesis University of Vienna, 2003.
• German art and decoration - Volume 57 1925/26: "Exposition International des Arts Décoratifs" - work by the Hagenauer workshop .
• Fritz Wotruba, Wilhelm Mrazek: Catalog for the exhibition "Hagenauer" in the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna.
• Erich Breinsberg : Franz Hagenauer - The singular art of hand-driven metal sculpture . Morawa, ISBN 978-3-9905706-9-2 .
• Franz Hagenauer . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 67, de Gruyter, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-598-23034-9 , p. 437.
• Olga Kronsteiner: Werkstätte Hagenauer - Viennese Modernism and New Objectivity . Exhibition catalog Wagner-Werk of the Bawag Foundation, 2011.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

1. ^ Franz Hagenauer grave site , Vienna, Ober Sankt Veiter Friedhof, Group A, No. 44.
2. ^ Werkstätte Hagenauer - Viennese Modernism and New Objectivity. Exhibition catalog 2011. Pages 32 ff Franz Hagenauer - The singular art of hand-driven metal sculpture. Morawa, pages 36 ff
3. ↑ Karl Schmidt
4. ↑ Evidence in the Austrian library network