Karl Sterrer (painter)

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Karl Sterrer: Portrait of Gottfried von Banfield , 1918 ( HGM )

Karl Sterrer (born December 4, 1885 in Vienna ; † June 10, 1972 ibid) was an Austrian painter and graphic artist .

Life

The son of the sculptor Karl Sterrer (1844–1918) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with Alois Delug and Christian Griepenkerl . In 1908 he received the Rome Prize. In 1910 and 1911 he went on study trips to southern Italy, and also toured Switzerland , France , Spain and Germany . From 1911 he was a member of the Wiener Künstlerhaus (until 1931) and received the Kaiserpreis in 1914.

In November 1915, Sterrer joined the Landsturm and applied for a post in the Austro-Hungarian war press quarter , where he was accepted into the art group on April 18, 1916 as a war painter . Excursions to the front took him to the Russian and Italian theater of war. In the summer of 1918 he was transferred to the air force on the Tyrolean front at a special request . During the war, Sterrer mainly painted and drew aviator motifs and portraits of aviator heroes, but also posters for war bonds. Until December 1918, Sterrer was listed in the civil service lists of the war press office.

From 1920 on, Sterrer was particularly interested in the technique of etching . From 1921 he taught at the Vienna Academy, in 1922 he became a professor. Leopold Hauer , Hans Fronius , Rudolf Hausner , Karl Glatt and Max Weiler are among Sterrer's students. In 1929 he received the State Prize of Honor. In 1937 and 1938, Sterrer was the rector of the Vienna Academy. Karl Sterrer was the only employee at the Academy of Fine Arts to be removed from service twice: after Austria's annexation to the German Reich and - after he was rehabilitated in 1939, again after the end of Nazi rule . After his dismissal as rector in 1938, Sterrer tried to be accepted into the NSDAP , which he did not succeed until 1940. Afterwards he became involved as a National Socialist and also resigned from the Catholic Church. In 1938/39 he portrayed Adolf Hitler . In 1945 he was released from civil service for the second time, which also meant the loss of the professorship; a special commission formed for denazification made a negative decision and in 1946 put him into permanent retirement with reduced salaries. The academy had suggested an appreciation through an unreduced pension, but otherwise not explicitly opposed his departure. From 1946 Sterrer turned again increasingly to religious topics. In 1957 he was awarded the Great Austrian State Prize for Fine Arts .

His work includes portraits, figural compositions, landscapes, nudes and graphics as well as glass windows.

His grave is in the Hütteldorfer Friedhof (group 13A, row 1, no. 1).

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1913 Glaspalast, Munich
  • 1922 Künstlerhaus, Vienna
  • 1933 Secession, Vienna
  • 1939 Mountains and people of the Ostmark, Künstlerhaus
  • 1954 Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna

Museum reception

The holdings of the Vienna Army History Museum include numerous works by Karl Sterrer, several of which are open to the public in the permanent exhibition. These are mainly works that Sterrer made as a war painter.

Works (excerpt)

  • Position in Bukovina , 1916, oil on canvas, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna
  • Austrian positions at Toporoutz (Bukowina) , 1918, oil on canvas, 77 × 211 cm, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Vienna
  • Liner Lieutenant Banfield and his fighter pilots , chalk with opaque paint on paper, 70.9 × 95.7 cm, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Wien
  • Home - Appeal , 1914/15, mixed media, 68 × 91 cm, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Wien
  • Heimat - Dein Mann , 1914/15, mixed media, 68 × 91 cm, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Vienna
  • Stained glass window in the Krim parish church in Vienna, 19th century.
  • Christ the King mosaic on the altar wall of the Christ the King Church in Vienna 15.

literature

  • Arpad Weixlgärtner : Karl Sterrer: a contemporary Viennese painter . Vienna 1925
  • Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Military Science Institute): Flies 90/71 " . Catalog for the exhibition, Volume II: Flies in the First World War, paintings and drawings . Vienna 1971.
  • Liselotte Popelka: From hurray to the corpse field. Paintings from the war picture collection 1914–1918 . Vienna 1981.
  • Felix Czeike (Ed.): Historisches Lexikon Wien . Volume 5, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-218-00547-7 , p. 342.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Österreichisches Heeresmuseum (Ed.): Catalog of the war picture gallery of the Austrian Army Museum , Vienna 1923, p. 1
  2. ↑ Liselotte Popelka: From Hurray to the corpse field. Paintings from the war picture collection 1914–1918. Vienna 1981, p. 28.
  3. ↑ Walter Reichel: "Press work is propaganda work" - Media Administration 1914-1918: The War Press Quarter (KPQ) . Communications from the Austrian State Archives (MÖStA), special volume 13, Studienverlag, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-7065-5582-1 , p. 184.
  4. ^ Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Military Science Institute): "Flies 90/71", catalog for the exhibition, Volume II: Flies in the First World War, paintings and drawings. Vienna 1971, pp. 40–45.
  5. ^ Poster for the 8th War Loan. In:  Sport & Salon , June 30, 1918, p. 29 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / sus
  6. ↑ Verena Pawlowsky: The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under National Socialism. Lecturers, students and administrative staff. Böhlau, Vienna 2015, p. 42
  7. ^ Manfried Rauchsteiner , Manfred Litscher (ed.): The Army History Museum in Vienna. Graz, Vienna 2000, p. 92.

Web links


personal data
SURNAME Sterrer, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian painter and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH 4th December 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH June 10, 1972
Place of death Vienna