Kurt Absolon
Kurt Absolon (born February 28, 1925 in Vienna , † April 26, 1958 in Wulkaprodersdorf ) was an Austrian painter and graphic artist .
Life
Kurt Absolon was born on February 28, 1925 in Vienna. His father Vinzenz Humbert Absolon worked as a civil servant. The mother Hermine, nee Waßinger, was a housewife. Absolon grew up with three sisters and one older brother. The family lived at Tivoligasse 30/12, Vienna XII. After graduating from high school, Absolon was drafted into the military from 1943 to 1945.
Absolon studied from 1945 to 1949 at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with Robin Christian Andersen . At the same time he attended the evening act with Herbert Boeckl and the fresco course with Albert Paris Gütersloh . In the summer of 1947 he took part in the “Salzburg Seminar” at Schloss Leopoldskron , a multi-week course for scientists and artists organized by Harvard University , where Absolon met Curt Wiespointner . Kurt Moldovan , Wander Bertoni and Leopold Rosenmayr were among the participants .
In 1950 Absolon became a member of the informal "Group 50" around Hans Weigel's circle in the Cafè Raimund in Vienna I. He experienced a strong influence on his drawing work through literary suggestions. The cycles Jardin du Mal , Pierrot , Cain , Job and Don Quixote were created . In order to secure his livelihood, Absolon worked as an unskilled worker in the reconstruction of Vienna's Westbahnhof , at Unilever AG, at the carpenter's workshop Nowaks Witwe, at the Hanke & Cösngei publishing house and as a messenger at the Patzelt & Co. photochemical art institute in April 1952 Bad Gleichenberg in Styria. From May to June he had his first exhibition together with Claus Pack in the Wiener Konzerthaus . On May 30, 1952, he married Adele Kitzweger. On July 10, 1952, the company moved to a residential studio at Steinbauergasse 36/20/15 in Vienna XII. The couple lived mainly from the earnings of the woman who worked as an accountant in the steel construction company Waagner-Biro. The cycles Cœur Volé after the French poet Arthur Rimbaud and Aphorisms were created . He also created illustrations for the marble cliffs by the writer Ernst Jünger , which the latter refused because he hoped for drawings by Alfred Kubin , as well as oil paintings on paper under the influence of Henri Matisse .
In 1953 Absolon published his art theoretical essay Originality, Radicality, Individuality in Hans Weigel's Voices of the Present . In the same year he refused membership in the Art Club . At the suggestion of Kurt Moldovan , Absolon applied for a scholarship to stay in France. The cycles shadows , interstices and Ecce Homo were created . 1953 to 1954 he resumed the evening act with Herbert Boeckl at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna . In the summer of 1954 Absolon won the 3rd Austrian graphic competition in the Tyrolean art pavilion with his washed ink drawing Still Life with Fishes . The cycles The Old Man and the Sea after the American writer Ernest Hemingway and Sodom and Gomorrah were created . In 1955 Absolon received the Theodor Körner Foundation Prize. Drawings of Viennese city views were made. From July to August 1955 he took part in the exhibition "Master Graphics in Austria" at the Künstlerhaus Palais Thurn und Taxis in Bregenz. From August to September 1955 he stayed in Alpbach in Tyrol, where he took part in the European Forum Alpbach . In October 1955, a still life in watercolor was bought by the City of Vienna's Department of Culture. In the winter semester of 1955/56 he studied wall painting with Albert Paris Gütersloh at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. In 1956 he executed the sgraffito "Raben" on the facade of the house at Troststrasse 18 in Vienna. An artistic examination of printmaking resulted. Inspired by the popular uprising in Hungary , drawings and a color lithograph were created. Illustrations for Martin Buber's Hasidic stories . On October 16, 1956, he received the City of Vienna Award. In December of the same year three of his drawings were bought by the City of Vienna's Department of Culture. At the 6th Austrian graphics competition in 1957 in the Tyrolean Art Pavilion, Absolon received the prize from the Institute for the Promotion of the Arts in Austria. Numerous drawings of his pregnant and nursing wife were made. His daughter Iris Maria was born on March 19, 1957.
He made glass window designs for the parish Neuerdberg Don Bosco in Vienna III, one of which was made. In 1957 he traveled to Paris and Arles on a scholarship from the Institute for the Promotion of the Arts in Vienna . City views and depictions of bullfights, a cycle on the Passion of Christ and illustrations for the publication Carnuntum, Geist und Fleisch by Herbert Eisenreich , published in 1960, were created . In November 1957 Absolon celebrated his first solo exhibition in the renowned Würthle Gallery in Vienna.
In March 1958, Absolon was commissioned by the artist and filmmaker Kurt Steinwendner (Curt Stenvert) to make drawings for his film about the Impressionists. He also made the draft for a plaster cut on the organ gallery in the parish Maria Lourdes in Vienna XII, which was carried out posthumously. On April 24, 1958, Absolon went on a day trip to the quarry in St. Margarethen in Burgenland at the invitation of a friend. On the way back to Vienna there was a collision with a truck. Absolon was thrown out of the car as a passenger and succumbed to serious injuries on April 26, 1958. On May 2, 1958, he was buried in an honorary grave of the City of Vienna at the Südwestfriedhof in Vienna XII (group 34, row 10, number 40).
Afterlife
On May 16, 1958, Adele Absolon created a catalog raisonné. The numbering of the leaves (1 to 708) made with a red colored pencil came from her, as well as the verbal designation of the leaves. In 1962 four drawings by Absolon were posthumously included in Milo Dor 's publication Die Verbanned. Published an anthology . A year later, twenty drawings by Absolon were included in the text Why here? Published by Hertha Kräftner and Otto Breicha . Why today? Poems, sketches, diaries published. In 1966 five drawings by Absolon were published in the annual journal Protocol 66 published by Otto Breicha . In 1967, Absolon's first major retrospective with around 185 works on paper took place in the Albertina . As part of Styrian Autumn '73, a touring exhibition on Absolon took place in Graz, Eisenstadt, Bregenz, Vienna, Innsbruck and Klagenfurt. In 1977 the Kurt-Absolon-Weg was built in Donaustadt, Vienna XXII, in honor of the artist. In 1990, on the initiative of Otto Breicha, the most extensive exhibition to date in honor of Absolon took place in the Historical Museum of the City of Vienna (now the Wien Museum ). In 1991 a large exhibition in honor of Absolon took place in the Museum der Moderne Rupertinum in Salzburg.
meaning
Kurt Absolon mainly created paintings, drawings and prints, in addition he worked as a designer for sacred glass windows, plaster cuts and sgraffiti in public spaces. Through his contact with writers around Hans Weigel , book illustrations were created . His highly sensitive drawings often appear like dream visions. During his stays in Tyrol he made landscape drawings , in France cityscapes and bullfighting depictions . Apart from avant-garde art movements such as expressionism , cubism , surrealism and informal art , Absolon developed an individual language of forms that was dedicated to the existentialist existence of humans. As a painter and graphic artist, Absolon created poetic dream worlds in virtuoso ink and watercolor drawings, expressive oil paintings and prints.
Works (selection)
- Suburban landscape , 1951, oil on paper, 54.8 × 74.8 cm, Mumok
- Still life , 1956, oil on canvas, 59 × 55.5 cm, Artothek des Bundes
- Bull skull and two predator skulls , 1956, oil on canvas, 56.5 × 45.5 cm, Museum der Moderne Salzburg
- Still life with fruits , 1955, pen and ink and watercolor on paper, 32.5 × 45 cm, Wien Museum
- Attack des Tanks , 1956, pen and ink wash and watercolor on paper, 31.5 × 48.5 cm, Albertina
- Pain , 1957, pen and ink washed on paper, 32.5 × 47.5 cm, Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz
- Bull's skull , 1956, aquatint etching, 25.1 × 35 cm, Albertina
- Refugees , 1956, lithograph, 48 × 65 cm, Neue Galerie Graz
- Raben , 1956, Sgraffito, Troststraße 18, Vienna X.
- Glass window, 1958, Neuerdberg Don Bosco parish , Vienna III
- Plaster cut, 1958, Parish Maria Lourdes , Vienna XII
literature
- Felix Czeike (Ed.): Absolon Kurt. In: Historisches Lexikon Wien . Volume 1, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-218-00543-4 , p. 8 ( digitized version ).
- Otto Breicha : Kurt Absolon 1925–1958. "The draftsman with the grass harp". Graz 1989.
- Otto Breicha (Ed.): Absolon 1925–1958. Drawings and watercolors. Exhibition catalog Kulturhaus Graz, November 15, 1973 - December 7, 1973.
- Kurt Absolon Vienna 1925–1958. Exhibition catalog Galerie Welz, Salzburg March 20, 1968 - April 21, 1968.
- Kurt Absolon 1925-1958. Drawings and watercolors. Exhibition catalog Albertina, Vienna April 26, 1967 - June 11, 1967.
- Kurt Absolon. Exhibition catalog Galerie Würthle, Vienna November 14, 1961 - December 2, 1961.
- Herbert Eisenreich : Carnuntum. Spirit and flesh. Vienna 1960.
Web links
- Kurt Absolon
- Literature by and about Kurt Absolon in the catalog of the German National Library
- Entry on Kurt Absolon in the Austria Forum (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
- Entry to Kurt Absolon on Vienna History Wiki
- Kurt Absolon on artnet
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Absolon, Kurt |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian painter and graphic artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 28, 1925 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vienna |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 26, 1958 |
| Place of death | Wulkaprodersdorf |