Helmuth Graeff

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Helmuth Gräff 2015

Helmuth Gräff (born April 12, 1958 in Gars am Kamp ) is an Austrian painter , graphic artist and poet . Gräff's painterly style is rooted on the one hand in Vincent van Gogh's artistic legacy , on the other hand it can also be seen as the forerunner or legacy of the Neue Wilde .

life and work

Private

Helmuth Gräff, member of a family of artists , was born as the son of Rudolf Gräff and Leopoldine Kimmerl from Vienna - Schwechat - a great-granddaughter of the imperial judge Matthias Kimmerl (1818–1883), after whom Vienna's Kimmerlgasse is named. In 1983, Gräff's first marriage was the art professor Martina Maria Gach from Vienna- Nussdorf , daughter of the architect Richard Gach . His son Matthias Laurenz Gräff is also a freelance artist. Gräff has been married to Sonja Egger for the second time since 2003.

Due to a sports accident and a fracture of three thoracic vertebrae from 1995, Helmuth Gräff suffered persistently in the back area, which increasingly impaired his artistic work. According to Gräff's own report on his website, when his art collector withdrew a " Richard Wagner life cycle" comprising several hundred drawings and oil paintings, he attempted suicide with a 30-fold overdose of insulin , which led to apoplexy , and thus temporarily led to a loss of language.

Professional

Helmuth Gräff studied at the Vienna Art School from 1977 , among others with Fritz Martinz , before he began studying painting with Gustav Hessing (assistant to Peter Dressler ) and Friedensreich Hundertwasser in 1979 at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna , master class for painting . In 1983 he completed his studies with a diploma as an academic painter and a Magister Artium , and he also received the 1st prize of the Friends of the Academy .

Helmuth Gräff has been working as a freelance painter, graphic artist and poet since 1989. His works can be found in many private collections at home and abroad, including over 20 paintings in the Rudolf Leopold Collection and some works in the Angerlehner Collection .

Gräff's works include oil paintings , drawings, graphics and poems. The main themes are often large-format compositions for the “ Tibetan Book of the Dead ” (Bardo Thödröl), as well as city and landscape images, nudes, portraits or still lifes. His painting travels took him, accompanied by his wife Sonja Gräff, through Austria, to Italy ( Tuscany , Umbria ), southern France and Florida .

The painter Karl Stark said of Helmuth Gräff's art that he is well on the way to bringing the consciously handled soul and spiritual forces that are effective in the world of colors and forms back into connection with natural phenomena . Furthermore, he correctly understood Vincent van Gogh's approaches, the departure into modernity, especially the revolution .

Opening of "Lebensbilder" (1996), mural using tile technology, Willi Dungl Biotrainings Center, Gars am Kamp. Helmuth Gräff (left) with Günter Stummvoll and Willi Dungl
Vernissage at Sparkasse Horn AG ; Helmuth Gräff with Vice Chancellor Wolfgang Brandstetter flanked by the two board directors (2015)

Works (selection)

Exhibitions (selection)

Solo exhibitions:

Exhibition participation:

  • 2015: "Matthias Laurenz Gräff and Helmuth Gräff. Between the Worlds - Between the Generations", Galerie Daliko, Krems an der Donau
  • 2011 "The exitement continues - Contemporary art from the Leopold II Collection", Leopold Museum , Vienna
  • 2011 "Gräff meets Seitz", joint exhibition with Friedrich Martin Seitz, exhibition bridge , St. Pölten

bibliography

  • Helmuth Gräff, Between the Worlds. Dionysian - Apollonian - earth - water - fire - air. Provincial Library Publishing House, 2008, 222 pages. ISBN 978-3-85252-908-0
  • Helmuth Gräff, Nude - Landscape - Allegory. Edition M for art in the provincial library. Publishing house for literature, art and music, 2005, 102 pages. ISBN 3-85252-645-0
  • Helmuth Graeff. Edition Thurnhof, issue No 5, on the occasion of the personal exhibition in the Horner Galerie Thurnhof, 1990, 20 pages.

Web links

Commons : Helmuth Gräff  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helmuth Gräff, Nude - Landscape - Allegory. Edition M for art in the provincial library. Verlag für Literatur, Kunst und Musikalien, 2005, p. 23
  2. ↑ THE EXCITEMENT CONTINUES Contemporary art from the Leopold II Collection
  3. ^ Matthias Laurenz Gräff
  4. ↑ Personal and detailed statement by Helmuth Gräff, 2019 (under "News")
  5. ↑ Entry on Helmuth Gräff in the "Basis Wien"
  6. ↑ Short biography at the Austrian Belvedere Gallery
  7. ↑ Kleine Zeitung.Helmuth Gräff, "Metamorphoses" - oil paintings and drawings (October 2010)
  8. ↑ Helmuth Gräff, Nude - Landscape - Allegory. Edition M for art in the provincial library. Verlag für Literatur, Kunst und Musikalien, 2005, p. 23
  9. ↑ NÖN, press article "Secret is revealed"
  10. ↑ Kunstmuseum Waldviertel Art Museum, Helmuth Gräff
  11. ^ Press release from the Leopold Museum. "THE EXCITEMENT CONTINUES. Contemporary Art from the Leopold II Collection"
personal data
SURNAME Gräff, Helmuth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian visual artist
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Gars am Kamp (Lower Austria)