Maria Biljan-Bilger

Bronze sculpture City of the Child on its former location (2008)

Bronze sculpture of the cat family

Sculpture, Oggelshausen sculpture field, 1969.

Fountain in summer

Maria Biljan-Bilger (born January 21, 1912 in Radstadt , † May 1, 1997 in Munich , buried in Sommerein am Leithagebirge) was an Austrian sculptor and artist of applied arts for ceramics and textiles.

Life

Maria Biljan was the daughter of a master potter and grew up in Graz. In 1933 she married Ferdinand Bilger, a cousin of Goldy Parin-Matthèy . With her she attended the ceramics class at the Kunstgewerbeschule Graz . After the Second World War , Biljan-Bilger (1947) co-founded the Art Club and took part in the first exhibitions in Vienna and Rome, later Turin. In 1965 she was a founding member of the Austrian Society for Architecture .

Exhibitions and symposia

• 1948: together with Wander Bertoni and Heinz Leinfellner in St. Christoph am Arlberg .
• In 1950/1954 she took part in the Venice Biennale .
• 1952 her first personal exhibition in the "Strohkoffer", the Viennese exhibition space of the Art Club. There the Viennese clarinetist Uzzi Förster had weekly performances with his jazz band .
• In 1953/1959 she took part in the São Paulo Biennale .
• In 1961 she was invited by Karl Prantl to take part in the 3rd International Sculptor Symposium in the stone quarry of St. Margarethen in Burgenland , as well as in the personal exhibition in the Welz Gallery in Salzburg, opened by Roland Rainer .
• In 1969/71/72 she took part in the sculptor symposia in Oggelshausen in southern Germany , Labin in Istria and Tivoli near Rome, where large-format stones were created.
• In 1970 Maria Biljan-Bilger took over the management of the "Symposium European Sculptors" in St. Margarethen in Burgenland until 1987.
• From 1978 to 1982 she was professor for ceramics at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.
• In 1978 a personal exhibition was dedicated to her in the Sculpture House St. Margarethen in Burgenland.
• 1985 presented the gallery Hilde Groll in Oberzögersdorf near Stockerau , Lower Austria. the exhibition "Maria Bilger - Paul Flora - Kurt Moldovan ", she participated in the Museum of the 20th Century in "1945 - Before - After".
• 1986 in the castle and park of the ethnographic museum Schloss Kittsee in Burgenland, the largest personal exhibition to date was dedicated to her, opened by Hertha Firnberg .
• 1987: Otto Breicha opened her personal exhibition in the Rupertinum in Salzburg , Wolfgang Windbrechtinger in the Bruckmeier gallery in Eichgraben , Lower Austria.
• 1990: the Museum Villa Stuck in Munich presented her works, opened by Wieland Schmied .
• 1994: the Lower Austrian State Museum in Vienna shows her personal exhibition, Paul Parin from Zurich opens.
• In 2006 the Biljan-Bilger-Gasse in Vienna- Donaustadt (22nd district) was named after her.

Works (selection)

• Mosaics, Wiener Stadthalle
• Bronze sculpture, City of the Child , Vienna:
  • was removed in September 2008 by the Prajo demolition company and re-erected in almost the same place after being converted into a residential complex; a few years later it was removed again and set up opposite the artist's former home in Sommerein, where it can still be found today (as of 2018)

Awards

• 1954/1957: Golden and Silver Medal Triennale Milan
• 1956: Prize of the City of Vienna for Fine Arts
• 1959: International ceramic exhibition in Ostend , gold medal
• 1962: International Ceramic Exhibition in Prague , gold medal
• 1972: Austrian Art Prize for Fine Arts
• 1982: Silver Medal of Honor of the City of Vienna, Burgenland Culture Prize
• 1986: Polish Order of "Mérite Culturel"
• 1992: Culture Prize for Fine Arts of the State of Lower Austria

Fonts

• Images made of fired clay, terracotta and tapestries from 40 years , 1987.

Maria Biljan-Bilger Exhibition Hall Sommerein

• Maria Biljan-Bilger Exhibition Hall Sommerein : Her long-term partner, the architect Friedrich Kurrent, designed an exhibition hall for her in Sommerein. In 1995, construction work began on the “Maria Biljan Bilger Exhibition Hall” in connection with the residential and studio building in Sommerein. In 1998, one year after her death, Maria Guttenbrunner, Johannes Poigenfürst , Barbara and Friedrich Achleitner , Wander Bertoni, Friedrich Kurrent, Hans Puchhammer , Anton Schweighofer and Gunther Wawrik founded the Association of Friends of the Maria Biljan-Bilger Exhibition Hall Sommerein. They formed the first board.

literature

• Hertha Kratzer : The great Austrians. 90 extraordinary women in portraits. Ueberreuter Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-8000-3815-3 .
• Maria Biljan-Bilger. Exhibition hall Sommerein. Pustet Salzburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-7025-0555-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Maria Biljan-Bilger exhibition hall. Retrieved January 26, 2016 (short biography). 
2. ↑ Short biography of Maria Biljan-Bilger. University of Vienna, accessed on January 26, 2016 (contrary to other sources she was a professor there until 1992). 
3. ↑ What was left of the child's city? , accessed December 3, 2018
4. ↑ SCULPTURE from the CITY of CHILD by Maria BILJAN BILGER at marterl.at, accessed on December 3, 2018
5. ↑ Maria Biljan-Bilger. Exhibition hall Sommerein , p. 6

Web links

Commons : Maria Biljan-Bilger  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Maria Biljan-Bilger in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Maria Biljan-Bilger in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Entry on Maria Biljan-Bilger in the database of the state's memory of the history of Lower Austria ( Museum Niederösterreich )
• Website on Maria Biljan-Bilger
• Barbara Denscher: The grande dame of Austrian sculpture. In: The Flaneurin . April 21, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2018 .