Friedrich Aduatz

Friedrich Aduatz

Friedrich Aduatz (born July 1, 1907 in Pula (now Croatia ), † December 22, 1994 in Voitsberg , Styria ) was an Austrian painter and graphic artist .

Life

The childhood in Istria

1907–1921: Friedrich Aduatz was born on July 1, 1907 in the Istrian port town of Pula as the second of four children. He was the son of the kuk police officer Andreas Aduatz from Burgenland and the English teacher Maria Pierzl from Carinthia. He attended Italian school and grew up multilingual. Ship painters in the harbor awakened Friedrich Aduatz's desire to become a visual artist himself early on. The cultural diversity of Pula and the southern Mediterranean landscape influenced him and helped determine his later life's work as a painter. In 1920 Aduatz moved to Graz and attended the community school .

Visit of the citizen school

1922–1926: After graduating from community school, Aduatz graduated from the teacher training college in Graz together with Rudolf Pointner .

First job as a teacher

1927–1929: Aduatz got his first job as a provisional elementary school teacher in Wartberg in Styria . In April 1928 he was appointed to Graz as an assistant teacher, in 1929 he passed his second teaching examination and an evening course at the Styrian State Art School with Wilhelm Thöny .

Sezession Graz and Wiener Hagenbund

1934–1938: Aduatz became a member of both the Graz Secession and the Vienna Hagenbund , since then he has participated in the respective association exhibitions. Aduatz spent the summer months from 1935 to 1937 in Carinthia with Franz Wiegele , and these stays were decisive for his artistic work. In 1937 he received an Austrian State Prize Medal in bronze. Aduatz was also awarded the 3rd prize in 1937 at the competition exhibition "Landscape Drawings from Austria" in the Vienna Exhibition Center . At the end of March 1938, the Hagenbund was dissolved as a result of the annexation of Austria to the German Reich . Aduatz was banned from exhibiting because his works “do not belong to any common art movement” and are therefore considered “degenerate”.

Marriage and imprisonment

1939–1945: In November 1939, Aduatz was drafted into the German armed forces, completed basic training and married Antonia Reinisch, and since then he has had his permanent residence in Voitsberg. From April 1941 to August 1944 he was forced to teach at the Schönstein secondary school (today Šoštanj in Slovenia ). At the end of August 1944 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht again and initially deployed in Italy. From there he was transferred to what is now the Czech Republic , but he no longer had to take part in combat operations. After the end of the war, Aduatz was taken prisoner by the Soviets. Like many others, he fell ill with typhus, but was released back home after a few weeks. In September 1945 he started teaching at the Voitsberg secondary school, and in October Aduatz took part in the 15th exhibition of the Graz Secession. In 1945 Aduatz became a member of the Vienna Secession .

Aduatz receives the Lissone Prize

1946–1956: In 1946, Friedrich Aduatz was represented with colored ink drawings at the first post-war exhibition of the Vienna Secession in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. In January 1950 Aduatz was elected to the board of the Graz Secession. In 1956 he was awarded the Lissone Prize at the “Premio Lissone” competition exhibition in Milan. Also in 1956 he was one of the participants in the exhibition "Art from Austria" in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and thus initiated a series of foreign participations in the following years.

Worldwide exhibitions

1957–1962: In addition to exhibitions in Austria, works by Aduatz were shown in Rome , Milan , Bologna , Paris , Bern , New Delhi , Düsseldorf , Eindhoven , Warsaw , Montevideo , Johannesburg and Laibach during these years . In 1957 in Innsbruck, Aduatz was awarded the 1st prize of the Province of Styria at the 6th Austrian graphic competition.

Gold medal in Ancona

1963–1972: Two important international exhibition participations are to be mentioned for 1963: In the Neue Galerie Graz Trigon 63 and in Rome in the Caleografia Nazionale Incisori austriaci contemporanei (including works by Oskar Kokoschka , Johann Fruhmann , Mario Decleva and Alfred Hrdlicka ). A year later, he took part in the St. Gallen Museum in Switzerland. On the occasion of the artist's 60th birthday, the Grazer Neue Galerie showed a first retrospective of paintings and graphics in November 1967. In 1968 Aduatz was awarded a gold medal at the graphic biennale in Ancona. In 1972 Aduatz was first awarded the honorary title of professor hc, shortly afterwards he was appointed high school councilor by the state school council for Styria. In the same year, Aduatz ended his teaching work and went into permanent retirement.

Aduatz receives appreciation award for fine arts

1973–1980: In 1973 the participation in the exhibitions “Kon-Zession” in the spring in the Vienna Secession and in May / June in the anniversary exhibition “Fifty Years of the Graz Secession” in the Künstlerhaus Graz should be mentioned. In 1977 the artist Aduatz was awarded the certificate of honor by the city of Graz and in 1978 both the award for fine arts of the state of Styria and the gold medal of honor of the state of Styria . In 1979 he participated in the exhibition of the Vienna Secession “The Members of the Vienna Secession” and “Artists from Styria” in Darmstadt. A year later, the city of Voitsberg made Aduatz its honorary citizen.

Aduatz becomes honorary president of the Graz Secession

1981–1986: The Stadtmuseum Leoben showed an Aduatz personalities in 1982, one year later the artist took part in the large exhibition “Fine Arts in Styria 1945–1960” in the Neue Galerie Graz and the Künstlerhaus Graz. Also in 1983, Aduatz was elected honorary president of the Graz Secession, an honor previously only granted to Wilhelm Thöny and Alfred Wickenburg . In 1985 the artist's solo exhibition “Pictures from the Hagenbund Period” took place in the “Gallery in Walfischgasse” in Vienna. A long-standing wish came true for Aduatz when he exhibited works on paper in his native Pula in 1986.

The great gold medal of the state of Styria

1987–1994: In 1987 the artist celebrated his 80th birthday and was honored in the course of several solo exhibitions. A large retrospective of the Neue Galerie with 119 exhibits under the title “Vorangehen” took place in the Graz Künstlerhaus. A catalog with contributions by Wilfried Skreiner and Christa Steinle was published. Skreiner tried to position Aduatz as one of the first representatives of pure abstraction in Austria. Galerie Lendl in Graz and Galerie Contact organized further exhibitions on this occasion. In 1988 the state of Styria awarded the artist the Great Gold Medal of Honor, presented by Governor Josef Krainer . In 1991, Aduatz took part in the Contact Gallery's anniversary exhibition “Festival of Images”.

In 1992 the Lendl Gallery in Graz showed watercolors and drawings by Wilhelm Thöny, lithographs and etchings by Aduatz. On the occasion of his 85th birthday, Galerie Welz in Salzburg organized a successful solo exhibition. As part of the “ Steirischer Herbst ” festival , the international exhibition “Identity: Difference - Tribune Trigon 1940–1990”, curated by Peter Weibel , took place in the Künstlerhaus Graz, the Neue Galerie and the Stadtmuseum . In addition to numerous artists from Italy, the former Yugoslavia and Austria, Aduatz was also represented. In 1993 the Austrian Gallery presented the exhibition “The Lost Modern Age - The Hagen Artists Association 1900–1938” in Halbturn Castle . Friedrich Aduatz, who was a member of this artists' association from 1934 to 1938, was excellently represented with five oil paintings and one watercolor. Friedrich Aduatz died on December 21, 1994 in his home in Voitsberg.

plant

At the end of his life in 1994, Friedrich Aduatz could look back on a fulfilling life as a visual artist, but also as an art teacher. Aduatz - two of his three brothers studied architecture - always had a great talent for shapes and colors. His artistic development can be divided into several phases, whereby his commandment was always “to go ahead”, as he said in an interview for a catalog on the occasion of his numerous exhibitions.

The early days - first longing to become a painter

The growing Friedrich was very enthusiastic about painting from a very early age. He made the acquaintance of the “disegnatori”, the young ship draftsmen at the port of his picturesque hometown of Pula. However, hardly any pictures by Friedrich Aduatz have survived from the years before 1930.

The 1930s - beginning of his informal work

The young Friedrich Aduatz was deeply impressed by the style of factual expressionism . His first big topic was landscapes, especially those of his new home, western Styria. The color was very important to him. Already here, and even more so in his further career, it became the main bearer of his messages and went beyond the representation of the representational. During these years Friedrich Aduatz also painted still lifes , especially flowers, and his temple pictures. These temple pictures are characterized by the fact that they are architectural drawings, but objects and figures tend to recede and can usually only be guessed by the viewer. As early as the mid-1930s, Aduatz created his “Rhythmic Compositions”, purely non-representational images. He also used the “cord technique”: he colored cords, printed them out and then painted the enclosed areas. It was very important to him to develop away from the rigid depiction of things towards curved lines - and curves. Aduatz was one of the first artists in Austria to shape informal painting.

After the war - further action

After the end of the Second World War, Friedrich Aduatz continued his previous work. He painted the first informal works of the post-war period in Austria; artists such as Oswald Oberhuber and Maria Lassnig only followed later . Aduatz still saw himself as a representative of modernity. He dispensed with realistic images on large-format canvases, the figuration is suspended. His paintings were not supposed to be stories or anecdotes, but rather the color frees itself from the object, it is mainly a mediator of his feelings and thoughts.

The 1950s - creation of the apartment pictures

Friedrich Aduatz's apartment pictures were created. With them he wanted to depict urban life, but here again using color and geometry as the main support, and only very few figures and objects.

The time from 1970

From 1970 onwards, Friedrich Aduatz turned back to landscape and flower still life. Through his decades of experience as a visual artist, he had now developed a wealth of solutions, as can be seen in his late work.

The 1980s - late work, rich in creative elements

In the second half of the 1980s, Friedrich Aduatz set further priorities in his career as a painter: in his many depictions of the lagoon city of Venice . However, he did not want to depict motifs that were known everywhere, the color was once again of great importance to him. He did not simply depict what he found, but wanted the viewer to participate in his feelings and moods.

Solo exhibitions and collections

• 1947: Galerie Schönbauer, Graz
• 1956: Galleria Bussola, Torino
• 1956: “Topic and Counterpoint”, collection at the Wiener Festwochen exhibition 1956, Vienna Secession
• 1958: “Paintings”, Neue Galerie am Joanneum, Graz
• 1961: Galerie Peithner-Lichtenfels, Vienna
• 1965: "Paintings", Gallery 16, Graz
• 1967: "Paintings and Graphics", Neue Galerie am Joanneum, Graz
• 1971: Galerie Eder, Köflach
• 1975: "Pictures from Venice", Gallery 15, Graz
• 1977: "Early pictures - late pictures", Galerie Dida, Graz
• 1977: Maringer Gallery, St. Pölten
• 1979: "Apartment Pictures", Galerie Aduatz, Graz
• 1982: Leoben City Museum
• 1985: Künstlerhaus Graz
• 1985: "Pictures from the Hagenbund Period", gallery in Walfischgasse, Vienna
• 1986: "Aduatz", Islozbeni salon grada Pula
• 1986: Austrian Academy of Executives, Metahof Castle, Graz
• 1987: Galerie Lendl, Graz
• 1987: Cafe Sperl, Vienna
• 1987: Galerie Contact, Vienna
• 1987: "Vorangehen", retrospective in the Künstlerhaus Graz
• 1988: Welz Gallery, Salzburg
• 1988: Galerie Lendl, Graz
• 1989: “From a quiet garden”, Galerie Contact, Vienna
• 1989: Gallery "Zum St. Johanni", Mellingen (Switzerland)
• 1989: “Die Kunst 89”, Galerie Lendl, Graz
• 1990: GalerieLendl, Graz
• 1991: "New ideas about pictures", Bildungshaus Maria Trost (Styria)
• 1992: Welz Gallery, Salzburg
• 1995: "Friedrich Aduatz - Garden Pictures", City Hall of Voitsberg
• 1995: “Landscapes”, Galerie am Salzgries, Vienna
• 1997: “Friedrich Aduatz. Oil paintings, works on paper ”, Galerie Welz
• 1998: “Color Sounds”, Galerie Contact, Vienna
• 2001: “The tinting of color - oil paintings. Tenebroso, Allegro, Intermezzo, Finale Maestoso ”, Landesmuseum Joanneum - Stainz Castle
• 2002: “Friedrich Aduatz. Works from 1950 to 1980 ”, Galerie Welz, Salzburg
• 2002: "Friedrich Aduatz - Wandlungen", Galerie Contact, Vienna
• 2003: “Friedrich Aduatz - Siegfried Amtmann. Parallelism and Crossing ”, Artmark Gallery, Spital am Pyhrn, Styria
• 2003: “Masterpieces of Styrian Modernism”, Rabenstein Castle, Styria
• 2004: “Friedrich Aduatz. Color - sign - gestures. Works from 1950–1980 ”, Frauenbad Baden
• 2007: “Friedrich Aduatz. Works on Paper “, Galerie Eugen Lendl, Graz; "Friedrich Aduatz. For the 100th birthday, from the collection of the Neue Galerie ”, Neue Galerie Graz at the Landesmuseum Joanneum; "Friedrich Aduatz. In Campagna “, Galerie Welz, Salzburg; “Friedrich Aduatz - on the 100th birthday”, Galerie Elisabeth Michitsch, Vienna; "Friedrich Aduatz. On the occasion of the 100th birthday “, Arik-Brauer-Rathaus Voitsberg; "Friedrich Aduatz", Forum Austriaco di Cultura, Milan
• 2009: “Friedrich Aduatz - Italian Impressions. Oil paintings 1950–1970 ”, Galerie Eugen Lendl
• 2011: “Friedrich Aduatz”, Welz Gallery, Salzburg

Awards and recognitions

• 1936: Art medal of the city of Graz in silver
• 1937: Austrian state award medal in bronze; 3rd prize in the competition "Landscape Drawings from Austria", Vienna - Messepalast
• 1956: Lissone Prize, Milan
• 1957: 1st prize from the State of Styria at the 6th Austrian graphics competition in Innsbruck.
• 1961: Purchase recommendation by the jury when awarding the Joanneum Art Prize, Graz
• 1965: Art Prize of the City of Köflach
• 1968: Gold medal at the graphics biennale in Ancona
• 1972: Awarded the title of professor
• 1977: Certificate of Honor from the City of Graz
• 1978: Appreciation award of the state of Styria for fine arts
• 1980: Honorary citizen of the city of Voitsberg
• 1983: Honorary President of the Graz Secession
• 1988: Great Golden Decoration of the State of Styria for the Fine Arts

Quotes from and about Friedrich Aduatz

about his childhood:

“… We lived in Pola in Via Dante No. 13, and we were the only German-speaking family in this large apartment building. Occasionally we got together with the boys from the houses across from us, which was very interesting for us. There were some draftsmen among them, they deliberately called themselves 'i disegnatori', always had a sketchbook with them and felt they were budding painters. We also had little books we had made ourselves and a combined red and blue pencil. We mainly used it to draw ships that we saw every day and that kept us busy "

about the poverty of young artists:

“At Leykam's in Stempfergasse in 1925, Peter Richard Oberhuber and I bought Kandinsky's standard work“ On the Spiritual in Art ”together. The bookseller didn't expect to sell this book. These were our problems. We wanted to know what was going on in the German art scene, we heard little from France and only bizarre stories about Picasso, mostly in a very negative way. "

“The struggle for life in the 1930s had become very arduous, many were in financial difficulties. ... Then my wife rumbled the canvases clean, grabbing bloody hands. This was because I needed new canvas but couldn't afford it. The canvas was primed again and was ready for the next picture. "

on the difficulties of establishing yourself as a modern painter:

“The resistance against modernism had grown stronger in Graz, there was damage to images at exhibitions and critical statements in the press. But we young artists felt comfortable in the role of the avant-garde and did not allow ourselves to be unsettled, although we were not doing well. "

“Of course we heard about the“ Degenerate Art ”exhibition in Germany and hid all of our good pictures. ... A certain feeling of fear has arisen. ... The bourgeoisie in Voitsberg, for example, was completely ignorant of modern art. Some have acted as if we were meschugge. "

about the Wiener Hagenbund:

“The atmosphere at the opening of the annual exhibitions in Zedlitzgasse was impressive in a big city. Many painters from home and abroad were present, and artists from other fields also came. ... Extensive reports appeared in the daily newspapers. After the invasion, the Hagenbund was dissolved shortly after the opening of the spring exhibition. "

about the Graz Secession:

“Under the direction of Rudolf Pointner, there was a lively artistic life in Graz. The Secession exhibited in Rome, painters from Turin and Milan exhibited in Graz. Kurt Weber organized film days. There was a special show by Viktor Vasarely, who was highly esteemed at the time. It was a fruitful year full of activity by the President and members.

about the main carrier of his messages, the color:

“Color is something material. It is the material of which the visible world is made. Of course, color did not play the same role in all stylistic epochs, but under no circumstances should it be reduced to the function of covering the surface of things. "

Wilfried Skreiner about Aduatz:

“Going ahead can be identified as the lifelong maxim of the painter and person Friedrich Aduatz. ... Without attitude, without self-staging and great poses, he is a quiet man in the country, whose voice has been heard but not always recognized in its true meaning. "

Christa Steinle about Aduatz:

“You would in no way do justice to the artist Aduatz if he was labeled a landscape painter, his talent is too versatile, his desire for experimentation too great not to face the artistic challenges presented, each time a risk, but ultimately the only way to experience the own creative possibilities. "

Richard Rubinig about Aduatz:

“The work of the painter Friedrich Aduatz is one of the most important achievements of modern art in Styria. No other master of his generation had the same coloristic power and pregnancy. The color was always his confession. The color remained his fate to this day. "

literature

• Günter Eisenhut, Götz Pochat: Masterpieces of Styrian Modernism. Styria Pichler, 2003, ISBN 3-222-13116-3 .
• Karl Heinz Schwarzmann: The West Styrian painter's area. Leykam, Graz 2006, ISBN 3-7011-7570-5 .
• Matthias Boeckl: Friedrich Aduatz. Galerie Welz, Salzburg 1997, ISBN 3-85349-206-1 .
• Christa Steinle, Günther Holler-Schuster: Go ahead ... the pictorial work of Friedrich Aduatz. Graz printing house, 1987.

Web links

• Literature by and about Friedrich Aduatz in the catalog of the German National Library
• Friedrich Aduatz on sezession-graz.at
• Entry on Friedrich Aduatz in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )