Josef Franz Riedl

Josef Franz Riedl (born March 12, 1884 in Vienna ; † November 16, 1965 there ) was an Austrian sculptor and painter .

Live and act

The bronze sculpture "Eine Fels Wälzender" in front of thezeileis Institute from 1930.

One of Riedl's two sculptures on the portal of the Younion trade union in Maria-Theresien-Straße 11.

Josef Franz Riedl was born on March 12, 1884 as the first son of the wood sculptor Josef Riedl in Vienna and grew up here in poor conditions.

After graduating from the public school, he began studying at the Vienna State Trade School in 1898 , where he majored in modeling and drawing. Two years later he was already an apprentice in the Benk studio , where he also made his first round sculpture, the larger-than-life head of a Greek goddess. After successfully passing the entrance examination, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna from 1902 under Hans Bitterlich , Edmund Hellmer and Viktor Tilgner . After the first year of study, the number of students had dropped from 21 to seven, with Riedl being one of the seven chosen to be able to continue studying at the academy. Riedl stood out in particular; Among other things, because he also won a composition of characters written out by Bitterlich in 1903. A study trip to Munich a year later was less successful for him. On another trip to St. Corona am Wechsel , he became acquainted with his future wife Anna Bayer, whom he married in 1917.

With the death of his father in 1904 - Riedl was just 20 years old at the time - the family's financial situation worsened even further. After he had written his thesis at the Academy of Fine Arts under Professor Bitterlich at the end of April 1905, the aforementioned Hofrat Edmund Hellmer soon became aware of the 21-year-old Riedl and invited him to his home. After Riedl had praised his artist colleagues such as Michael Drobil , Josef Müllner and Alfred Hofmann , he presented his own work to Hellmer, whereupon Hellmer accepted him as a student. In 1908 he completed his first marble work - from Adnet marble from Untersberg near Salzburg (see also Untersberg marble ). Numerous works for the Vienna Prater were created under Hellmer's direction . After receiving a travel grant, which he won through a competition, Riedl opened his own studio in 1910/11. Soon afterwards Riedl did his military service in World War I and was seriously wounded in 1916. He then returned to Vienna and made portrait plaques in the hospital .

Sculptures enlightenment, liberation and child welfare , Karl-Marx-Hof

Especially in the inter-war period , when his son Rupert , who later became an internationally recognized zoologist , was born, he came to the fore by working on urban residential buildings, the so-called art in architecture . He mainly worked on small sculptures, figural sculptures or sgraffiti for facades. The focus of his work is the development of social housing in the 1920s and 1930s. The most important works by Riedl include a sculpture created in 1923 in the Fuchsenfeldhof , a putto making music from 1925 in what is now the neighboring Reismannhof, or a puffer fish for the ornamental fountain in the Bebelhof (1926). He contributed facade decorations for the Sandleiten Kindergarten (1928) and the Karl-Marx-Hof (1930). He is also responsible for the design of the Manhardt monument , which was unveiled on September 12, 1929, was removed during the Nazi era and a copy of which was put up again in March 1967. Various other works by Riedl can still be found in urban housing in Vienna and in the surrounding Lower Austria .

In 1936 Riedl was involved in the art competitions of the 1936 Summer Olympics in the “Sculpture” category . During the Second World War , Riedl was often commissioned; once to make a portrait of Adolf Hitler . After the war he was active again in Vienna. During this time, two busts were created as monuments to Julius Tandler and Clemens Pirquet , which are still in the auditorium, the arcade courtyard of the University of Vienna . Riedl received numerous awards throughout his life; among others in 1926 with the Prize of the City of Vienna for Sculpture and the Reichel Prize . In 1931 he received the Golden State Medal and in 1950 the Great Gold Medal of the Künstlerhaus.

Until a few years before his death, Riedl wrote a life story that was edited by his son Rupert Riedl and was published in book format in 2005 as an artist biography. Riedl's notes ended at the turn of the year 1961/62 and was then no longer continued by him. During this time, his large studio on Grinzingerstraße was given up. In 1964 he fell ill with cerebral sclerosis and died on November 16, 1965 at the age of 81 from the consequences of his illness in the Obersteinergasse sanatorium in Vienna. He was buried three days later at the Neustift cemetery .

Awards and honors (selection)

• 1926: Prize of the City of Vienna for Sculpture
• 1926: Reichel Prize
• 1931: Golden State Medal
• 1950: Large gold medal from the Künstlerhaus

Literature (selection)

• Rupert Riedl : Life and work of the sculptor Josef Riedl: An artist biography . Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-631-53045-5 .

Web links

Commons : Josef Franz Riedl  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Josef Franz Riedl in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
• Josef Franz Riedl in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )