Fritz Novotny (art historian)

Fritz Novotny (born February 10, 1903 in Vienna ; † April 16, 1983 there ) was an Austrian art historian .

Life

Novotny studied art history at the University of Vienna under Josef Strzygowski and received his doctorate with a dissertation on Romanesque architectural sculpture in the apse of the parish church of Schöngrabern in Lower Austria . From 1927 he was an assistant at the Strzygowski Institute. In 1937 he completed his habilitation with the study Cézanne and the end of the scientific perspective , which became a standard work of Cézanne research and established Novotny's fame as an internationally recognized expert on the art of Paul Cézanne . In the course of this work, Novotny made the acquaintance of the painter Gerhart Frankl , who was stylistically influenced by Cézanne in his own work and who also dealt with his French role model in his art theoretical statements. From the initial professional discussions, a lifelong friendship soon developed, which was reflected in an extensive exchange of letters. When Frankl had to flee to England in 1938, he immediately tried to help Novotny to leave the " Ostmark ", which had meanwhile been attached to National Socialist Germany, in the emigrant circles there. Probably out of concern for his elderly mother and his ailing sister, whom he did not want to leave behind, Novotny decided to stay in Vienna. Despite his uncompromising anti-fascist attitude, he got a job at the Austrian Gallery in Belvedere Palace in 1939 , the interim management of which was transferred to him for two years immediately after the end of the war in 1945. From 1960 to 1968 he was the definitive director of this museum and brought the great masters of classical modernism closer to the Viennese population in a series of highly regarded exhibitions. Since 1948 Novotny taught as an associate professor at the university, but was only honored with the title of full professor on the occasion of his retirement in 1978. As a board member of the Adalbert Stifter Society, Novotny also dealt with the poet's painterly work and initiated a small museum that has since been incorporated into the Wien Museum .

Fritz Novotny was buried in the Hietzinger Friedhof in Vienna in an honorary grave (group 12, number 58).

Awards

• 1956 Prize of the City of Vienna for the humanities

Works

• Paul Cezanne . In: Belvedere , vol. 7, 1929
• The problem of the man Cezanne in relation to his art . In: Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und Allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft , Volume XXVI (26), 1932
• Paul Cezanne . Phaidon, Vienna 1937; revised edition 1968
• Cézanne and the end of the scientific perspective . Vienna 1938
• Adalbert Stifter as a painter . 1941
• Cézanne as a draftsman . In: Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte , Vol. XIV (XVIII), 1950
• The great French impressionists. Vienna 1952; New Dr. 1995
• Painting and Sculpture in Europe 1780 to 1880 , 1960
• About the "elementary" in art history , 1968

Web links

• Literature by and about Fritz Novotny in the catalog of the German National Library