Gustav Gurschner

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gustav Gurschner (born September 28, 1873 in Mühldorf am Inn , † August 2, 1970 in Vienna ) was an Austrian sculptor .

Live and act

His father Alfons Gurschner was a surveyor and married Aloisia Grass, the daughter of a cutler in Bolzano . Son Gustav was born during a stay abroad - the father was involved in a river regulation project to regulate the Inn in Bavaria .

Gustav Gurschner attended the elementary and civil school in Bozen; He regularly spent the summer with his siblings with their grandparents in Mölten .

In 1885 Gurschner went to the Bozen technical school for wood and stone processing; For a short time he was also at the technical school in Laas-Vinschgau . In 1888 he switched to the arts and crafts school in Vienna on the advice of his teacher Haider from Bolzano . His teachers were August Kühne and from 1891 to 1894 Otto König .

After his military service as a one-year volunteer with the Kaiserjäger in Innsbruck (1895/96), he moved to Munich , where he wanted to continue his education in large- scale sculpture . He married Alice Pollak , who worked as a writer.

In 1897 Gurschner traveled to Paris, where he discovered his enthusiasm for Art Nouveau . There he was significantly inspired by Art Nouveau artists such as Alexandre Charpentier , who also encouraged him to design everyday objects and small sculptures. He made a variety of handicraft objects such as door knockers, candlesticks, electric lamps, belt buckles and many other items of daily household use.

He took part in exhibitions at the Vienna Secession , a group of artists that had split off from the main art nouveau style. In the course of the split-up of the Secession, Gurschner joined forces with like-minded people to form the Hagenbund , which in 1908 built an artist house in which art exhibitions could take place. Gurschner was chairman of the artist association and the art house for many years.

Gravestone of Gurschner's mother at St. Anna's Church in Mölten, made by Gustav Gurschner

Gurschner's main field of activity was the portrait . He portrayed members of the Austrian imperial family , politicians, artists, industrialists and nobles. Stylistically, he was an opponent of the development from expressionism to abstract art and remained true to his more representational and aesthetically justified art ideas from the Art Nouveau period.

Gurschner was also called to the royal court of Romania as an artist, where he portrayed the young Queen Maria and King Carol I , among others .

Gurschner was also an early motor sportsman. He was one of the first sports car drivers in Austria. At his suggestion, the Imperial and Royal Voluntary Automobile Corps and the Imperial and Royal Voluntary Motor Driver Corps were founded for the military. As a first lieutenant (of the reserve) he was finally appointed commander of the Imperial and Royal Volunteer Motor Driving Corps. His contacts with the army were also reflected in many awards, badges and memorials for the fallen soldiers of the First World War , such as the equestrian memorial for the fallen soldiers of the kuk Dragoon Regiment No. 14 in the Augustinian Church in Vienna .

It was not until the last year of the war, on April 10, 1918, that Gustav Gurschner was accepted into the art group of the Austro-Hungarian war press quarter . About 80 drafts of army plaques created by him for the benefit of war relief earned him half a million crowns .

Gurschner's brother Emil was also a sculptor; another brother Herbert worked as a painter in London .

Honors

Works (excerpt)

  • Portrait relief of Emperor Franz Joseph I , 1907, cast bronze , 45 × 4 cm, Army History Museum , Vienna
  • Portrait relief of Karl von Kopal , 1911, cast bronze, 56 × 5 × 45 cm, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna
  • Relief plaque Plaque of the Imperial and Royal Voluntary Automobile Corps , sheet brass , 44 × 4 × 51 cm, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna

swell

  • Chronicle of Mölten . Pp. 225-228; Josef Schwarz's contribution there appeared in Der Schlern from 1970, pp. 484–487. The following is quoted there: Franz Windisch-Graetz: Life and work of the sculptor Gustav Gurschner , in: Alte und moderne Kunst (magazine), 1996, no. 87, pp. 34–39.

literature

  • Ilse Krumpöck: The sculptures in the Army History Museum , Vienna 2004, p. 63 f.

Web links

Commons : Gustav Gurschner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ilse Krumpöck: Die Bildwerke im Heeresgeschichtliches Museum , Vienna 2004, p. 63 f.
personal data
SURNAME Gurschner, Gustav
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Mühldorf am Inn
DATE OF DEATH 2nd August 1970
Place of death Vienna