Heimo Kuchling

Heimo Kuchling (born September 25, 1917 in Kapfenberg , Styria , † September 23, 2013 in Vienna ) was an Austrian art theorist.

He founded the subject of morphology of the fine arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and later taught it at the University of Art and Industrial Design in Linz . In addition to his journalistic activities, he acted as a buyer for collections and as a curator and artistic advisor for galleries. The Kuchling circle was formed around him after the war and up to the present day .

Life

His father Rudolf Franz Kuchling was a technical teacher for mechanical engineering and a staunch socialist, his mother Cäcilia geb. Fabian came from a watchmaking family with Italian roots. Heimo Kuchling was married to Ursula Berg, a daughter of the painter Werner Berg , and he and her had three children, Christine, Gerald (zoologist, herpetologist) and Elisabeth.

Early years

Born in 1917 towards the end of the First World War, he grew up in Klagenfurt . As a student, I was particularly interested in the subjects of natural sciences and art. Extensive hikes with father and younger brother in Carinthia and Styria. His high school friend , the poet Michael Guttenbrunner , became his closest companion.

1935–1939 apprenticeship as a ceramist at the Vienna School of Applied Arts with Robert Obsieger . Participation in lectures and exercises at the philosophical and medical faculty of the University of Vienna . Lifelong friendship with his fellow students Rudolf Korunka and Kurt Schwarz (later professors for commercial graphics at the University of Applied Arts), Franz Kure and colleagues Adele Stadler and Luise Janacek.

A great passion was photography and microscopy.

After studying art as a freelance art writer in Vienna, from 1941 editor at the magazine Kunst dem Volk. During this time he met the painter Herbert Boeckl .

In 1945/46 Maria Lassnig attended his lectures on modern art in Klagenfurt. He also became aware of the then 16-year-old Arnulf Rainer . In 1946 he met the painter Werner Berg , whose daughter Ursula he married in 1951.

Establishment

From 1950 teaching position at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna , mediated by Fritz Wotruba . Development of the subject morphology of the fine arts . Close cooperation with Joannis Avramidis ' sculpture class in Böcklinstrasse. Clemens Holzmeister recommended that the students in his architecture class attend Kuchling's lectures and the exercises for the elementary study of form. From 1973 interdisciplinary lectures at the University for Artistic and Industrial Design in Linz . Working discussions in the classes for art education (Rector Hannes Haybäck), painting (Eric Ess), sculpture ( Erwin Reiter ) and ceramics ( Günter Praschak ).

1980 Awarded the title ao. HS Professor at the University of Artistic and Industrial Design in Linz . In 1987, on the occasion of his 70th birthday, the exhibition Paths to the Image was held there.

For the Fritz Kamm Collection, Kuchling acquired important works by artists such as Cézanne , Picasso , Gris , Macke , Klee , Kirchner and Schlemmer at international auctions . From 1953 to 1968 he worked as a curator at Kamm's Galerie Würthle in Vienna and exhibited both international and Austrian artists. From 1963 to 1993, together with Eric Ess, curator and artistic advisor for the Haemmerle Gallery in Götzis, Vorarlberg.

From 1960 to 1973 editor and author of the journal for art theory KONTUR.

Maria Lassnig , who returned to Austria in 1980 after stays abroad, made acceptance of a professorship at the University of Applied Arts subject to the condition that Kuchling supported her in establishing and leading her class.

Late years

His openness to everything new remained the driving force for dealing with young artists and new ideas in the visual arts.

For the past two decades, Maria Lassnig has sought advice from Heimo Kuchling and discussed her pictures with him. He was one of the first to recognize the quality of Maria Lassnig's pictures; she trusted his judgment.

At the age of 80 he began to write his texts on the computer. Since then these have been corrected and edited by his daughter Christine Shamari and the former listener Martin Hasenschwandtner. Until his death he worked intensively and without interruption on problems of art theory and the accentuation of previous knowledge. He was buried at the Hütteldorfer Friedhof .

Work and work

As a teacher

The content of the lectures and picture discussions were the critical examination of general laws of the pictorial form and the concrete formal structure of the respective work of art.

“Morphology of Fine Arts was the name of his lecture. It was all about why a picture is good and has quality, i.e. the forms. He examined everything, Cubism, also old pictures, and in drawings the curves, differentiation, total rigor. Once he said we should draw a curve that has tension. "

- Otto Muehl : From prison 1991–1997, page 142

As a theorist, intent on going into the essential formal features of a successful work of art regardless of content and style, he conveyed the need for a holistic view and constructive criticism.

In addition to teaching, he gave lectures on the fine arts on the radio and in institutions for adult education in Klagenfurt, Graz, Vienna, Linz and Salzburg.

1963 Lecture at the Goethe University in Frankfurt / Main followed by a discussion about The Artist and Time .

Acquisitions for the collector Fritz Kamm and work for the Würthle gallery in Vienna

After the war Heimo Kuchling brought international art back to Vienna, which was already known at the beginning of the century, but had been completely suppressed and forgotten by National Socialism. He brought the achievements of the founding generation of modern art of the 20th century back into the consciousness of the Austrian public.

Heimo Kuchling bought works of art for the Kamm Collection at international art auctions in consultation with Fritz Wotruba . At that time he recognized the high quality of these works of art, which at that time had largely gone unnoticed. This created one of the most valuable art collections of the 20th century.

As an art theorist and critic

In the KONTUR magazine, Kuchling showed how art theory and art criticism are mutually dependent. His book Critique of the Fine Arts of the 20th Century and the KONTUR series aroused positive reactions from Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and Rudolf Arnheim . Art historians and art theorists such as Kurt Badt , Max Imdahl and Fritz Novotny grapple with his theoretical positions . For his essay on the 25th international art exhibition in Venice in 1950, published in the journal Kunst ins Volk , he received an extraordinary Biennale award.

The Kuchling Circle

After the war, painters, sculptors, architects and art educators gathered around the charismatic art theorist. These include artists such as the painters Eric Ess, Norbert Grebmer and Maria Lassnig , the sculptors Joannis Avramidis and Josef Pillhofer , the architects Friedrich Achleitner , Friedrich Kurrent and Johann Georg Gsteu , the art educator Hannes Haybäck and the filmmaker and founder of the Film Museum Peter Kubelka . In 1957 the painters Otto Jungwirth, Peter Pichl and Hubert Dietrich , later also chief curator at the Kunsthistorisches Museum , joined them. This circle has been expanded over the years by subsequent generations of artists. Dealing with formal problems on an objectified level made it possible to meet different and sometimes very reserved artists.

Exhibitions took place regularly in Heimo and Ursula Kuchling's house in Hütteldorf .

As artistic advisor to the Seitenstetten Abbey

In 1988 the knight's chapel was reopened after renovation and design according to Heimo Kuchling's plans. This collaboration was also the initial spark for the establishment of a gallery for contemporary art in the Seitenstetten Abbey in 1997. Father Martin Mayrhofer, curator of the abbey’s extensive historical art collection, began buying works by painters and sculptors from the Kuchling district.

Galerie Neunzendorf and Galerie KONTUR

Since 1998, the Neunzendorf Gallery in Ried im Traunkreis and since 2010 the KONTUR Gallery in Vienna have hosted exhibitions by artists from the Kuchling district. The two operators Hannes Gstöttenmayr and Robert Trsek are themselves painters and former listeners to Heimo Kuchling from Eric Ess's painting class.

Publications

In magazines

1941–1945 editor of the magazine Kunst dem Volk , Vienna. From 1945 freelance art writer, freelancer for the magazines Kunst ins Volk , Europäische Rundschau , Die Zeit , Vienna and publications in Neues Forum , Die Bühne , Wissenschaft und Weltbild , Wort und Truth , Heute , Domus , Die Kunst , Parnassus , Wort in der Time and Christian Art Papers .

Catalogs and other publications

Various articles in catalogs and other publications on artists such as Joannis Avramidis , Werner Berg , Richard Gerstl , Rudolf Korunka, Robert Obsieger , Josef Pillhofer , Rudolf Schönwald and Fritz Wotruba .

abstract

• Comments on the painters of the “ Nötscher Circle ”. On the letters of the Nötsch painters , in: Wilhelm Baum (ed.), "Works of art are stations on the Passion Path to a Lost Paradise". Letters and documents on the Nötscher district, Kitab-Verlag, Klagenfurt-Wien 2004, pp. 531–559
• with Maria Baumgartner and Günter Praschak : Ceramic Austria , Galerie Böwig, Hanover 1989
• Robert Obsieger - Review of teaching and work and Robert Obsieger and the Vienna School of Applied Arts during the Nazi regime in : Robert Obsieger 1884–1958, University of Applied Arts in Vienna, 1986, pp. 31–41 and pp. 75–77
• Austria Modern Painting , folder of the press office of the Austrian Federal Chancellery, 1980 (translated into several languages)
• The Wortuba School and Fritz Wotruba's position in contemporary art , in: Otto Breicha (ed.): Fritz Wotruba. Writings on the work, Europaverlag, Vienna 1967, pp. 125-131 and pp. 216-219
• Richard Gerstl 1883–1908 . Würthle Gallery, Vienna 1956

Books

• Werner Berg (1904–1981) . Magnet Gallery, Vienna 2005
• Eros in the image of man . Kunstverlag Wall, Vienna 2002, (series Kontur)
• Drawing and color. Albin Egger-Lienz / Werner Berg . Kunstverlag Wall, Vienna 2001
• Werner Berg. Late woodcuts . Berghaus Verlag, Kirchdorf 1982, ISBN 3-7635-0062-6
• Egon Schiele and his group . Berghaus Verlag, Ramerding, 1982, ISBN 3-7635-0053-7
• Expressionism . Berghaus Verlag, Ramerding, 1980, ISBN 3-7635-0033-2
• Oskar Schlemmer. man . edited, introduced and commented by Heimo Kuchling. Series: the Bauhaus book, Mainz / Berlin, 1969 Engl. Transl. J. Seligman, Man. Teaching notes from the Bauhaus, London 1971 and Cambridge / Massachusetts 1971
• Werner Berg. Woodcuts . Publishing house Guberner and Hierhammer, Vienna 1964
• Critique of the fine arts of the XX. Century . Guberner, Vienna 1962

Publications at the University for Artistic and Industrial Design in Linz

• TEXTS. Art and program. Two types of evaluation, texts on art theory and art education . 1993
• TEXTS, without subtitles, texts on art theory and art education . 1989
• Art without a future? . 1987
• Socialist realism. Reflection of the socialist society? in: Society (sic!) Art and Religion 1. Joint lecture series of the universities in Linz, University of Linz, University of Artistic and Industrial Design, Catholic Theological University, Linz 1979, pp. 22–3
• TEXTS. The stick that swims upstream, texts on art theory and art education
• TEXTS 2. Crossing boundaries in the fine arts, texts on art theory and art education
• Conversation about socialist realism. Texts on art theory and art education

Only manuscripts circulating in the Kuchling circle

• Thoughts on artistic training . 2013
• Overcoming naturalism . 2011
• Visual arts seen in a new way. Paths to a high picture . 2010
• The necessary . 2008
• Eight essays . 2008
• Essays
• > Art in the Third Reich <-> Degenerate Art <
• Trends in the Fine Arts of the Occident
• The artist's paradise
• Look, select, abstract

Web links

• Werner Berg by Heimo Kuchling (online version of the book on the Werner Berg Museum homepage)
• Gallery KONTUR
• Stiftsgalerie - Stift Seitenstetten
• Gallery Neunzendorf
• Werner Berg Museum

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heimo Franz Rudolf Kuchling grave site , Vienna, Hütteldorfer Friedhof, Group 3, No. G18.