Rudolf Wacker

Self-portrait from 1918

Rudolf Wacker (born February 25, 1893 in Bregenz , † April 19, 1939 there ) was an Austrian painter .

Life

The listed Villa Wacker at Römerstrasse 24, Bregenz

Winter landscape , 1934

Rudolf Wacker was born as the fourth and youngest child of Romedius Wacker from Thaur in Tyrol and Marianne (née Wüstner) from Mellau , Bregenzerwald in Bregenz. Romedius Wacker was a successful master builder and lived with his family in a self-built villa with a large garden at Römerstraße 24. During the First World War , Wacker was drafted into the military. He was taken prisoner by Russia in Poland in 1915 and spent five years in Tomsk in Siberia . After the so-called annexation of Austria in 1938, Wacker was targeted by the National Socialists because he was said to have a close relationship with communism . Among other things, he had participated in peace rallies and had openly opposed the cultural policy of the National Socialists. Wacker suffered two heart attacks during a house search and interrogation by the Gestapo and died soon after in his parents' house in Bregenz.

Works

Wacker is one of the most important representatives of the New Objectivity in Austria.

While still a prisoner of war in Tomsk, he took part in an art exhibition there. After returning home in 1920, he first went to Berlin , where he dedicated himself to expressionism . After returning home, he made a change in style towards New Objectivity: His first major exhibition took place in 1923 in the Vorarlberg State Museum . His focus was on still lifes , landscapes and portraits . His experiences in the war played a formative role throughout his life. In 1926 Wacker was a founding member of the artists' association “Der Kreis” . He was on friendly terms with the Swiss painter Adolf Dietrich , another member of “Der Kreis”.

The highlight of his career is taking part in the Biennale in Venice in 1934 seen. From 1936 to 1938 he worked as a lecturer in life drawing at the Bregenz trade school.

literature

• Peter Melichar : Rudolf Wackers Bregenz. Garrison town, state capital and what else? In: Andreas Rudigier , Jürgen Thaler (Hrsg.): Wacker in the war. Experiences of an artist ( vorarlberg Museum Schriften 36), Salzburg / Vienna 2018, pp. 39–53.
• Oscar Sandner : Rudolf Wacker: Drawings. Drawing as liberation. Verlag Galerie Neufeld, Lustenau 1975.
• Rudolf Wacker: Diaries: 1913–1939. Part 1. Edited by Rudolf Sagmeister . Topos-Verlag, Vaduz 1990.
• Rudolf Wacker: Diaries: 1913–1939. Part 2. Edited by Rudolf Sagmeister. Topos-Verlag, Vaduz 1990.
• Bregenz Art Association / Office of the Vorarlberg State Government - Kunsthaus Bregenz (Ed.): Rudolf Wacker and contemporaries. Expressionism and New Objectivity , Buchdruckerei Lustenau, 1993, ISBN 3-900822-05-0 .
• Carl Kraus , Hannes Obermair (ed.): Myths of dictatorships. Art in Fascism and National Socialism - Miti delle dittature. Art nel fascismo e nazionalsocialismo . South Tyrolean State Museum for Cultural and State History Castle Tyrol , Dorf Tirol 2019, ISBN 978-88-95523-16-3 , p. 229-230, 236-237 .

Web links

Commons : Rudolf Wacker  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Rudolf Wacker in the catalog of the German National Library
• Part of Rudolf Wacker's estate is in the Franz Michael Felder archive of the Vorarlberg State Library .
• Entry on Rudolf Wacker at litkult1920er.aau.at , a project of the University of Klagenfurt

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rudolf Wacker in the catalog of the libraries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
2. ↑ Catalog 1993 p. 10
3. ↑ DEHIO manual. The art monuments of Austria: Vorarlberg. Bregenz. Villa Wacker. Bundesdenkmalamt (Ed.), Verlag Anton Schroll & Co, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-7031-0585-2
4. ↑ ^{a b} Rudolf Wacker on the pages of the art collections of the Austrian National Bank ( Memento of the original from March 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ^ Work exhibition in the Kunsthaus Bregenz
6. ↑ Wacker in the war. Experiences of an artist , exhibition in the vorarlberg museum , 2018
7. ↑ ^{a b} Galerie Widmer, St. Gallen ( Memento of the original from May 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.