Helmut Leherb

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Leherb , also Maître Leherb (born March 14, 1933 in Vienna ; † June 28, 1997 ibid), maiden name Helmut Leherbauer (the hybrid form Helmut Leherb is also common in literature ), was an Austrian artist and representative of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism , which is close to surrealism .

Life

Maitre Leherb and the Faience America
Mosaic by Leherb in the Kagran school garden in Vienna- Donaustadt
Mosaic coffee house scene in the Danube Park

He was the son of a school principal who died in 1945 after the liberation of Austria as a result of National Socialist imprisonment. Helmut Leherbauer graduated from the Hernalser Gymnasium Geblergasse in Vienna in 1951 and studied from 1948 to 1954 at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna and at the Stockholm Academy of Arts . In 1955 he moved back to Vienna to attend the Academy of Fine Arts in the class of Albert Paris Gütersloh , where he experienced the direct confrontation with Surrealism. Gütersloh co-founded the Art Club and is considered to be the founder of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism . Leherb thus found access to this circle of artists and organized various exhibitions together with other representatives of this art direction, for example with Anton Lehmden , Rudolf Hausner and Wolfgang Hutter . In 1959 her works were shown in the Upper Belvedere. The art critic Johann Muschik coined the name of Fantastic Realism, which is still valid today .

From 1959 to 1963, works of art were created in Viennese parks that still exist today:

  • Wiener Prater : the ceramic relief image Tschinellen-Fiffy (near the Ferris wheel) and the Sonntagsgwand (facing the Praterstern), both from 1959
  • In the Kagran school garden: the mosaic flower goddess Flora and gardener god Vertumnus from 1960
  • In Volkspark Laaerberg : the ceramic stele Day & Night from 1962
  • On the Kaffeehausberg in the Danube Park : the ceramic relief image of the coffee house scene and the floor mosaic The Birds of Leherb (a joint work with Hermann Bauch , both from 1963), on the occasion of the Vienna International Garden Show - WIG 1964 , as the Danube Park was originally called.

The central motifs that can be found in many of his paintings are his own person, that of his wife, the painter Lotte Profohs (born November 16, 1934, died 2012) or his son, Anselm Daniel Leherb. Through his personal forms of representation he was a Viennese society favorite all his life. Leherb also lived in France, Belgium and Italy. In Paris he made the acquaintance of André Breton , who described him as the "black prince of surrealism". Leherb, however, was disgusted by what he felt was "Parisian decadence" and allegedly poured Breton down with a wine glass.

The Biennale scandal

In 1964 Leherb was nominated for the Venice Biennale with his time destruction manifesto , but his participation was prevented by the new Minister of Education Theodor Piffl-Perčević (ÖVP) after a government reshuffle . A deep blue pavilion would have been planned, in which dead pigeons, umbrellas and dolls would have stuck to the walls. An art scandal loomed and the leading art journal in Paris " Arts et Loisirs " had the headline "First scandal of the Venice Biennale!". The German magazine “ Stern ” brought the scandal to the cover: “Surrealist Leherb: no white mice for Venice” and did not save with attacks against the “cultural land” Austria.

Walter Koschatzky described Piffl-Perčević's understanding of art in his memoirs as “shockingly low”. Leherb's decision to be voted out bothered him, but it boosted his profile enormously and opened the doors to the most important galleries in Europe: Galerie de la Madeleine and Isy Brachot in Brussels, CAW gallery in Antwerp, la Medusa in Rome; Mokum Gallery in Amsterdam, Peithner-Lichtenfels and Wolfrum in Vienna and Galleria Viotti in Turin.

Leherb, fascinated by the picturesque Valeur , the watercolor-like sfumato , also realized ceramic reliefs and mosaics. In 1963 the “Reactionary Confirmants Dream” was created in the Villa Cabasso in Aix-en-Provence . In 1964 he created the ceramic mural “Explosion der Stille” for the building of the central savings bank of the municipality of Vienna.

Austria advertising and the Olympics

In 1971/1972 Leherb was commissioned with the design of four posters by the later “ Österreich Werbung ” (then still Austrian Tourism Advertising , ÖFVW). The posters "I like Mozart", "A girl who plays her cello on a cloud", "Island of longing" and "A lady with a Lipizzaner" were created. The then chairman of the ÖFVW, Minister of Commerce Josef Staribacher , staged the start of the new series with publicity: He started the printing press himself. The posters sold out quickly. A possible new edition is being planned.

In 1976 he designed the poster for the Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck: a Greek head that Leherb provided with a modern crash helmet, glasses and a timer as a reminder of the limits of competitive sport. This representation was embedded in the Leherb blue. This poster is also long out of print.

This was followed by a faience painting with a length of more than seventeen meters and a height of five and a half meters for the rehabilitation center at the "White Court" in Klosterneuburg .

Italy and its most monumental work

Faience, the continents
Faience

In Faenza , Italy, at the beginning of the 1980s, Leherb created the “largest faience ever produced ”, a 380 square meter mosaic for the new building of the Vienna University of Economics , which opened in 1982, “The Continents”, whereby the ceramic dust caused serious health problems Sustained damage. An imaginary portrait of the continents of Asia, Europe, America, Africa, Antarctica and Australia was created here in twelve years of work and with more than 3500 small ceramic plates.

Leherb himself said: “ No workshop, no expert, no ceramist in the European ceramics centers considered the realization of eight by eight meter majolica paintings to be technically feasible in 1980: that never existed, never will, and a Leherb will also do this not succeed. "

Leherb to the art: " One proceeds brittle, susceptible to fracture clay tiles, with Majolikstaub, known as, smalt coated ', a mainly consisting of metal oxides, mixed with water glaze. [...] This painting surface is unstable and can be destroyed by any improper touch. A one-meter-high floor vase is considered a masterly top performance. For eight by eight meter majolica panels - the dimensions correspond to a two-storey house facade - there were neither comparative nor empirical values. [...] I moved countless tons of art during the process of creating these 'university faiences'. For motifs such as faces, bodies, and hands, there was a process of creation that made it necessary for me to bring panels up to 25 and 30 times from the six meter high scaffolding down to the detail easel without being allowed to touch the surface. It was not possible to sketch the huge figures, you cannot draw on dust. "

From 1993 to 1994 the university fountain “A Door for Eurydice” was built, which can be seen in Badgasse in Vienna IX ( Lage ). From 1989 to 1991 Leherb created the oversized bronze and ceramic work “Gate for an Imaginary Museum” for the Goldscheider Manufactory in Stoob , Burgenland , as well as two ceramic vase heads (each limited to 140 pieces).

He also recorded a record entitled Autodafé des Surrealists .

Although Leherb was a representative of the Viennese School of Fantastic Realism, he later turned away from the style of other representatives such as Arik Brauer and Ernst Fuchs and increasingly towards Surrealism.

Leherb died of a stroke in 1997. He left behind his wife, the painter Lotte Profohs , his son Anselm Daniel (1960–2001) and his granddaughter, Angela. He was buried in the Vienna Central Cemetery. In 2018 the Leherbweg in Vienna- Donaustadt (22nd district) was named after him.

Awards

  • Gold medal at the Triennale in Manur, Belgium 1966
  • Gold medal from the Biennale Internazionale della Grafica, Florence 1968
  • Grand Prize of the Fondation Internationale des Collectionneurs d´Art, Paris 1969
  • Lauréat du Livre d´Or des Valeurs Humaines, Paris 1970
  • Ambrogino d´Oro del Senato d´Arte; Milan 1972
  • Elefante d'Oro e gran Premio; Rome-Catania 1972
  • Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, 1st Class, Vienna 1974
  • Cavaliere Ufficiale nell´Ordine al merito dell´Republica Italiana, Rome 1990
  • Tribun del Tribunato di Romagna, Ravenna 1992
  • Gold medal of honor "pro meroti" on the ribbon of the Board of Trustees of the Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna 1992
  • Honorary member of the Academia Fiorentina delle Belli Arti e Disegno, since 1967

Works (excerpt)

  • painting
    • Déjeuner chez Leherb
    • In Search of Lost Time
    • Katowice Madonna
    • Le roi, c'est moi
    • Gold woman
    • The captured thief
    • Loss of tenderness
    • Nude as an armchair backrest
    • Dove pope
    • Lady with bowler hat
    • The concert
    • Gilbert Becaud
    • Surrealistic bullfight
    • Wiener Melange or Blue Lady
    • Monna Lotte
    • Lipizzaner
    • Paranoia
  • Records
    • Autodafé of a surrealist
    • Lotte & Leherb: Irre gut, Philips 6322011, together with Lotte Profohs, arr. & Cond. Toni Stricker , 1974

literature

  • Felix Czeike (Ed.): Leherb Helmut. In:  Historisches Lexikon Wien . Volume 6, Kremayr & Scheriau / Orac, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-218-00741-0 , pp. 116-117 ( digitized version ).
  • Gerald, Nowotny: Leherb sees Paris . Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1975, ISBN 3-218-00273-7 .
  • Robert E. Dechant, Filipp Goldscheider: Goldscheider. Company history and catalog raisonné. Historicism, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, 1950s. Arnoldsche, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-89790-216-9 .
  • Arcade Paris Bruxelles (ed.): Leherb. Le Monde d´un Surrealist. The world of a surrealist. The world of a surrealist. Il mondo di un surrealista. Paris, Brussels 1973
  • Lotte Profohs, Hans Otto Ressler: Daydreamer and Nightwalker, Vienna 2016 (biography from the point of view of Lotte Profohs)

Web links

Commons : Leherb  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ dieStandard.at - Lotte Profohs-Leherb: "Have mercy on women"
  2. ↑ DER SPIEGEL of October 9, 1967: Mouse in the ear
  3. ↑ Günther Berger: In memorian Maitre Leherb. In: Austria Mundi. March 14, 1998, accessed May 14, 2015 .
  4. ↑ The Standard: Relics of a Forgotten Scandal
  5. ↑ Faenza, 1986
  6. ^ Leherb, the Universitätsfayencen, Board of Trustees for the Promotion of the Vienna University of Economics and Business
  7. ^ Robert E. Dechant, Filipp Goldscheider: Goldscheider. Company history and catalog raisonné. Historicism, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, 1950s. Arnoldsche, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-89790-216-9 .
  8. ^ Art and culture in Vienna - central cemetery: Helmut Leherb
  9. ↑ Lt. Information given to the Federal Chancellery on October 25, 1974 and handed over on January 16, 1975.
  10. ↑ Peter Kupfer: people of today . In: Courier . 17th January 1975.
  11. ↑ Surrealist receives ... , in: Tageszeitung Arbeiter-Zeitung , Vienna, January 16, 1975, p. 16
personal data
SURNAME Leherb, Helmut
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leherbauer, Helmut (maiden name); Leherb, Maître (stage name, name change)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian painter
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH June 28, 1997
Place of death Vienna