Rudi Holdhaus

Rudi Holdhaus, 2014

Rudi Holdhaus (born July 10, 1950 in Vienna ) is an Austrian painter and artist.

Life

"My teacher" (1958)

Together with his father, Holdhaus set up a watch and jewelry business in Vienna at a young age. In 1967 he completed his apprenticeship as a goldsmith. As a child he discovered his passion for painting. His drawing "My Teacher" (1958) first aroused attention to his artistic talent. In 1962 he received the 1st prize in the drawing competition of all Viennese general education colleges with the picture "The Conductor".

"Viennese Jazz Bar" (1965)

In 1965 he designed the poster for a Viennese jazz bar, where he presented his pictures to the general public for the first time as part of an exhibition at the age of 15.

The "art brut" painter developed a very personal style as an autodidact with layering technique and the combination of the inherently contradicting styles "abstract" and "figurative".

His cycles and art actions address indifference, excessive political command and prohibition culture, powerlessness, submissiveness, obedience, vanity, greed, pettiness, mendacity, the cruelty of the human being. He makes use of metaphors, often abstracting into childlike quality, in order to “confront the viewer with the topics without a raised index finger”, as Rudi Holdhaus repeatedly emphasizes with his quote “Art is the most humane ART to show”.

In 1979, with his exhibition “Am Ringelspiel der Erde”, he expressed his positive and critical examination of society, religion and the environment of reality. In 1986 he took part in the art project “The Open Eye” as part of the Wiener Festwochen.

He usually presents his works in self-conceived “total art events”. The locations of his exhibitions are not galleries or typical exhibition rooms, but places such as construction sites, factory halls, vacant and prominent buildings such as the Wiener Lusthaus, the Palais Ferstel or the Grand Palais in Paris, where he was the only one Not -Franzose was invited to present his cycle “Fresh Fruits” on the subject of 200 years of the French Revolution. Minister of Culture Jack Lang opened the exhibition.

On 9/11 he presented his cycle “Flower Power III” in the Walsch Gallery in Vienna, in which he drew attention to the many unnoticed theaters of war around the world with every picture.

The focus of his artistic work is on people and their environment. In 1993, George Tabori opened the exhibition “Grenzenlos” in the Remise in Vienna's second district with a specially composed world anthem. At a benefit auction in 1995, Holdhaus focused on society's dealings with people with disabilities with his cycle “Una Domenica Lunghissima”. For “Aktion Mensch” - (Patroness Therese Schwarzenberg opened the vernissage) he donated nine pictures from this cycle.

In addition to picture painting, his range of works also includes art objects (e.g. clock objects 1987) and art actions.

In 1996 the Venetian opera “La Fenice” burned down to the ground. This event prompted Holdhaus to paint a cycle of pictures “La Fenice”, which he exhibited a year later in the Palazzo di San Marco in Venice. The exhibition was opened by Massimo Cacciari, then Mayor of Venice.

Holdhaus dedicated the cycle “Die Küsser von Wien” to his friend Hans Hölzel (Falco), created after discussions about the Viennese society (“Bussi-Bussi-Gesellschaft”), which in both eyes was mendacious. Holdhaus presented this cycle in 1996 at the LINEA 70 gallery in Verona. Appropriately, the vernissage was opened by Austria's best-known society reporter Adabei-Roman Schliesser. Holdhaus worked on this cycle for another five years.

Already in 1994 the artistic thoughts of the two crossed on the topic "TITANIC". While Falco is writing his hit "TITANIC", Holdhaus is painting the cycle of pictures of the same name. He shows people's vanity and arrogance towards nature and questions why many people always have to die for the greed for new technical achievements. Folded paper boats should represent the helplessness of the people. Hans Hölzel opens this exhibition on September 28th. It will be another fateful day. The famous passenger ship "ESTONIA" sinks in the sea with 852 victims. The biggest shipwreck in post-war Europe.

In 1998 Holdhaus attracted a lot of attention with his art campaign "Golden Peaks Worldwide - for the protection of the water". On every continent, a mountain peak should be gilded as a symbol of the importance of clean nature as a filter for water. At a press conference in Vienna, Holdhaus presented the project for the continent of Europe - the “gilding of the Grossglockner”. On the occasion of World Water Day 1999, Holdhaus presented his cycle of pictures “Water Formations” in the UNO-City Vienna in the presence of Kofi Annan and transformed the whole building complex into a thundering waterfall with light projections.

"The World Champions" (2004)

At the MAK (fair for contemporary art) 2004 the gallery Fichtegasse 1 presented his picture cycle "Die Weltmeister". This cycle is dedicated to the loneliness of boxers in the ring. This is also the subject of the episode “Heavyweight” in the “Trautmann” series, for which Holdhaus switched to acting once in 2004 and took on the role of ring doctor.

On the occasion of the Mozart year 2006, Holdhaus presented the cycle “This is how Mozart really looked” as part of his art action “Funeral feast and dance of death” on the day of Mozart's death, December 5th, in Domgasse in Vienna, where Mozart was born.

From 2013 to 2014 he painted the cycle “The Living Advertising Columns”. A critical examination of the hype to get tattooed. As part of his exhibition on this topic in the Ottakringer Brewery, Rudi Holdhaus had the picture "Carin" from this cycle tattooed live.

At this exhibition, the joint works “Change” by him and Erwin Steinhauer were presented for the first time and once . These pictures were originally created in 2004 when Steinhauer played the painter Blasi in Bauer's play "Change" in the Volkstheater. Steinhauer had to paint a picture within three minutes. Holdhaus, who taught Steinhauer the technology for this, subsequently revised it.

In 2015, Holdhaus told an ORF series about Austrian cities and districts of Vienna in the episode " Meine Leopoldstadt " about stories and his personal relationship with the second district of Vienna, where he was born and grew up. Rudi Holdhaus lives and works in Vienna.

Exhibitions and art events

Holdhaus' works have been shown in numerous national and international exhibitions and art events since 1965.

Extract from publications

1986: "70 Austrian Artistic Souls speak", "The Open Eye", Werner Graf and Engelbert Theuretzbacher (ed. And publisher), Vienna
1989: "MAC 2000 Art '89" IMPRIMERIE Polycolor (ed. And publisher), Grand Palais, Paris
1989: "Vernissage, magazine for current exhibition events", 10/1989, no .: 8, year: 9
1999: "4 illustrated books as book volume in cassette", Rudi Holdhaus (Ed.), Vienna
2004: "Quelle Art Collection" with hand-signed prints, Quelle (Ed.), Vienna
2009: "My way to art - the collection of the HMZ private foundation", Helmut Zoidl (author), Helmut A. Gansterer (publisher), OO MHZ (publisher), Vienna
2010: AUSTRIAN STYLE, "Tradition meets modernity", Brandstätter (publisher), Vienna