Franz Walchegger

Franz Walchegger (born April 1, 1913 in Lienz , † November 26, 1965 in Klagenfurt ) was a pioneer of modern painting in Tyrol .

Live and act

Franz Walchegger came from a bourgeois family from Lienz who lived in the 19th century a. a. also brought forth the Brixen art historian Johann Evangelist Walchegger. After finishing school, Walchegger first learned the painting trade. He had an extraordinary talent, so he attended the drawing and painting school with Professor Toni Kirchmayr in Innsbruck . Sometimes he worked on church paintings. He studied at the art academy in Vienna from 1938 to 1942. There he took lessons with Professors Ferdinand Andri , Wilhelm Dachauer and Herbert Boeckl and graduated with a diploma.

In 1942 Walchegger was drafted into the German armed forces and did his front service in Russia and in the West. Even during the war Walchegger was z. T. active as a painter, u. a. he created wall paintings in a barracks in Olomouc . The war ended for him in captivity. After his release he returned to Lienz.

Like his role model Albin Egger-Lienz , he also developed a strong creative urge. During this time, numerous works were created based on motifs in rural figurines, in lively flower and landscape studies, animated portraits, but also large-scale wall paintings. Walchegger immortalized himself with frescoes on many facades of residential and commercial buildings in Lienz , Matrei in East Tyrol and other places. Another focus of Walchegger's work throughout his life was dealing with religious topics, in which the pair of themes "death" - "life" plays a special role.

In portraiture he has developed his own style and a distinctive color scheme. Not least thanks to his training, Walchegger succeeded in an excellent way in combining artistic expression with perfect craftsmanship. Based on naturalism and in creative examination of various models, he received a. a. the Cubism productive for themselves and ventured into the early 1960s in the abstract painting . A specific feature of Walchegger's later works is the so-called binder technique, a thickened application of paint that advances into three dimensions and gives the subjects a particular urgency and density.

Despite numerous commissions in public and semi-public areas, Walchegger's work was not always understood in his home region of East Tyrol and in some cases was hostile to it. He was particularly struck by the nightly overpainting of one of his frescoes on the Bach chapel in Matrei in East Tyrol by unknown perpetrators. Over time, Walchegger became more and more lonely and withdrew more and more. He sold his house in Lienz and in 1957 acquired the mountain house of the late German painter Franz Eichhorst in Matrei. He worked there until shortly before his death and finally died at the age of 52 in Klagenfurt. Shortly before his death, together with Josef Manfreda, Leopold Ganzer and Hermann Pedit, he was involved in founding the 1964 municipal gallery in Lienz.

The largest publicly accessible collections of Walchegger's works can be found - in addition to a number of exterior frescoes in Lienz city center - in Lienz town hall and in the Museum Schloss Bruck . Several exhibitions were dedicated to Walchegger's work - alone or in community - both during his lifetime and posthumously; not only in his closer home, East Tyrol, but also in Vienna and other larger cities. Last major exhibitions: Museum of the City of Lienz Schloss Bruck (June 20 to August 9, 2013); Hofburg Innsbruck (November 6th to December 4th 2013).

meaning

The Innsbruck professor Heinz Mackowitz summed up Walchegger's importance for the development of modern painting in Tyrol in his monograph Franz Walchegger (1984): “Walchegger's place within the development of Tyrolean painting in our century is undisputed, and it is becoming more and more obvious that it As far as the art of our country in the middle of this century is concerned, it is roughly in the same position as Egger-Lienz in the first quarter. There is no doubt that the name Walchegger always has to be mentioned next to that of Egger-Lienz when speaking of Tyrolean art of the 20th century. "

Works in public space

Mural family at house Walcheggerstrasse 1–4, Matrei in Osttirol (1963)

• Façade paintings, Wolkensteinerstraße 5 and 7, Lienz, around 1939
• Frescoes on the east wall, Alter Friedhof, Lienz, 1955
• Facade painting, Old Town Hall, Lienz, around 1955
• Wall painting The Four Ages , Friedensiedlung, Lienz, 1957
• Wall painting depicting a trading scene, bookstore & Papier Geiger, Lienz, 1958
• Draft facade sculpture, Parish Vicariate Church of Our Lady Maria Immaculate Conception, Mittewald , 1958
• Façade fresco Schutzmantelmadonna , Bachkirchl , Matrei in Osttirol, 1958
• Facade painting Pledging Matreis to the Salzburg cathedral chapter , district court of Matrei in East Tyrol , 1958
• Murals family and working life , Walchegger Street 1-4, Matrei, 1963

literature

• Eleonora Bliem-Scolari: Franz Walchegger (1913–1965): The visual language as a reflection of zeitgeist and soul. With a contribution by Winfried Löffler. Innsbruck-Vienna: Haymon 2013. 208 pp. ISBN 978-3-7099-7098-0 .
• Heinz Mackowitz: Franz Walchegger . Innsbruck u. a .: Tyrolia 1984.
• Painter Franz Walchegger died 40 years ago , in: Osttiroler Bote , November 24, 2005.
• Helga Reichart: Franz Walchegger (unpublished dissertation). University of Innsbruck 1986.
• Franz Walchegger: 1913–1965 . 70th birthday commemorative exhibition. Städtische Galerie Lienz, March 24 to April 30, 1983 (design and editing: Hans Steininger). Lienz: Culture Department d. City of Lienz, 1983.

Web links

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

• Franz Walchegger on the website of the Rohracher law firm
• Literature by and about Franz Walchegger in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 2013: FRANZ WALCHEGGER - Painting under the Sign of Classical Modernism . City of Lienz Museum. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
2. ^ Gerhard Pirkner: Franz Walchegger in Innsbruck a magnet . Dolomitenstadt Media KG. November 23, 2013. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
3. ↑ Fingernagel-Grüll, Wiesauer: Apartment building. In: Tyrolean art register . Retrieved July 12, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Fingernagel-Grüll, Wiesauer: Apartment building. In: Tyrolean art register . Retrieved July 12, 2020 . 
5. ↑ Gruber, Wiesauer: Old Cemetery. In: Tyrolean art register . Retrieved July 12, 2020 . 
6. ^ Gruber, Wiesauer: business and office building, old town hall. In: Tyrolean art register . Retrieved July 12, 2020 . 
7. ↑ Fingernagel-Grüll, Wiesauer: Art in building on public buildings: wall painting The four ages. In: Tyrolean art register . Retrieved July 12, 2020 . 
8. ↑ Fingernagel-Grüll, Wiesauer: Commercial building, bookstore & paper Geiger. In: Tyrolean art register . Retrieved July 12, 2020 . 
9. ↑ Fingernagel-Grüll, Schmid-Pittl: Parish Vicariate Church of Mariae Immaculate Conception. In: Tyrolean art register . Retrieved July 12, 2020 . 
10. ↑ Baumann, Wiesauer: Wegkapelle, Chapel hl. Florian, Bachkapelle, Bachkirchl. In: Tyrolean art register . Retrieved July 12, 2020 . 
11. ^ Frick, Wiesauer: Courthouse, district court. In: Tyrolean art register . Retrieved July 12, 2020 . 
12. ^ Molling, Wiesauer: Art in building on public buildings: Mural family and work life. In: Tyrolean art register . Retrieved July 12, 2020 .