Robert Wedge
Robert Keil (born July 25, 1905 in Kettwig / Essen, † March 9, 1989 in Vienna ) was an Austrian painter, sculptor and graphic artist.
Life
Between 1926 and 1928 Robert Keil received his first artistic lessons in the Benedictine monastery of Beuron from Willibrord Jan Verkade (1868-1946), who himself studied painting in Paris and was strongly influenced by the Nabis artist group . Several stays at Rothenfels Castle in the circle of the Quickborner movement and the contact with Romano Guardini were formative for his further life. In 1928 he came to Vienna to study art history and philosophy and began to paint. In 1932 he went to Italy, lived on the island of Ischia until 1936, worked as an artist and to earn a living as a travel guide in Rome and Naples. On returning to Vienna, he moved into a studio in the 8th district, Krotenthallergasse, and worked as a freelance artist. Drafted for military service in 1940, he was still a Soviet prisoner of war in 1945. He did not return to Vienna until 1948 and received Austrian citizenship that same year.
From then on, Keil traveled almost annually, mainly to the Mediterranean countries of Europe. In addition, several trips to Paris, Cologne and Essen ( Museum Folkwang ) in the 1950s were of great importance for his turn to abstract expressionism. The result was shown in a solo exhibition in the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna in 1958. In 1960 a large exhibition followed in the Folkwang Museum, Essen and in 1973 the highlight was an exhibition in the Austrian Gallery Belvedere, Vienna, which showed the oeuvre he had created in a wide-ranging exhibition. In 1969 he was given the professional title of professor .
Robert Keil was married to the art historian Nora Keil since 1943. The marriage had four children.
plant
Three phases of development can be traced in the painterly work. Until the mid-1950s, Keil still followed the objective, abstract realism with a strong and expressive color scheme. This is followed by the expressionist phase, which is already pure abstraction. From the mid-1970s, the abstract forms solidified into two-dimensional painting.
In contrast to this, the drawings that Keil made mainly during his travels (approx. 2,500 works) are, in his own words, “finger exercises” in dealing with the works of his artistic predecessors. They include architectural sketches, sculptures (before Michelangelo , ancient subjects such as the Parthenon frieze in the British Museum in London ), interpretations before Rembrandt , Tintoretto and Maulbertsch . These three artists were his most important leading figures for him.
The graphic work that Keil created since the early 1960s (approx. 300 plates) consists mainly of linocuts , in which he in turn was able to express his clear, abstract formal language well. From the mid-1970s, Robert Keil created around 50 large-format mosaic panels for residential complexes and private property developers in Vienna. As a counterbalance to this physically demanding work, he began increasingly to paint ceramics in a sensitive, lyrical-abstract form from 1977 (approx. 280 plates and tiles).
Exhibitions (selection)
Solo exhibitions
- 1958: Exhibition at the Austrian Museum for Applied Arts, Vienna
- 1960: Exhibition in the Folkwang Museum, Essen
- 1961: Exhibition in the Maerklin House, Stuttgart
- 1962: Exhibition at Baedecker, Essen
- 1964: Exhibition at Christian M.Nebehay, Vienna
- 1966: Drawings and prints in the Folkwang Museum, Essen
- 1971: Exhibition of drawings and prints, Neue-Galerie at the Landesmuseum Joanneum , Graz
- 1972: Exhibition as part of "Confrontation 1972", House of Youth , Vienna
- 1973: Exhibition at Belvedere Palace , Vienna
- 1979: Graphic exhibition at IKC, Vienna
- 1993: Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, St. Pölten
- 1993: Exhibition Virgilkapelle , Museum der Stadt Wien
- 1995: Exhibition at the Diözesan Museum , Vienna
- 2001: Austrian Cultural Forum Zagreb - graphic exhibition in Požega
Group exhibitions
- 1967: Participation in the memorial exhibition for Ministerialrat Dr. Adele Kaindl, Künstlerhaus Vienna
literature
Monographs
- Felicitas Keil (ed.), Robert Keil - The graphic work, with contributions by Wilfried Skreiner, Konrad Oberhn, Böhlau-Verlag 1993, ISBN 3-205-98054-9
- Evelyn Benesch: Robert Keil 1905-1989 . Amartis-Verlag, Vienna, 2009, ISBN 978-3-9501012-2-5
- Robert F. Keil (Ed.): Robert Keil 1905−1989 monograph with catalog raisonné . With contributions by Matthias Boeckl, Wolfgang Huber, Robert Friedemann Keil, Gabriela Nagler, Amartis-Verlag, Vienna, 2012, ISBN 978-3-9501012-7-0
Exhibition catalogs
- Robert Keil, Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna 1958
- Robert Keil, paintings and drawings, Museum Folkwang, Essen 1960
- Robert Keil, prints, Museum Folkwang, Essen 1962
- Robert Keil, prints and drawings, Neue Galerie Graz 1971
- Robert Keil, Austrian Gallery Belvedere Vienna, 1973
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wedge, Robert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian painter, sculptor and graphic artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 25, 1905 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kettwig |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 9, 1989 |
| Place of death | Vienna |