Wolfgang Wallner

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Wolfgang Wallner (born April 24, 1884 in Sankt Wolfgang im Salzkammergut ; † January 29, 1964 in Cologne ) was an Austrian sculptor .

Life

Grave site in the south cemetery

In 1900 Wallner began his training in Salzburg with the wood sculptor Rohatschek . He received a state scholarship for further training at the Hallstatt Wood School in Hallstatt from 1904 to 1906. From 1906 to 1911 Wallner attended the Art Academy in Vienna with Franz Barwig and Hermann Klotz . After graduating, he was a master student of Barwig. From 1911 to 1912 Wallner was a freelance artist in Vienna's 3rd district and shared a studio with the sculptor Max Domenig , who was also a student of Barwig and Klotz. In 1911 Wallner presented a collective exhibition of the work he had created up to that point in Budapest .

In 1912 he was called to Cologne by the director of the Cologne factory schools , the painter Emil Thormählen , where he was entrusted with setting up a sculpture class as an artist teacher. From 1915 to 1919 Wallner had to do military service in Austria. In 1923 he was appointed professor and in 1939 deputy director. In 1942 he exhibited the sculpture hospitality in the National Socialist Great German Art Exhibition in Munich via the Cologne Werkschulen . In 1946 he reopened the Cologne factory schools and taught sculpture and sculpture there until 1950.

Wallner was buried in Cologne's southern cemetery (hall 15).

Selection of works

Memorial plaque on the Hahnentorburg in Cologne in honor of the city architect Josef Stübben

• 1906: Saint Paul, 2.50 m high; Limewood
• 1912: Female nude (Eva), bronze; Museum of Applied Arts Vienna
• 1915: Dä kölsche Boor en Iser , 3.50 m high statue made of wood, as a nail sculpture for the benefit of war victims
• 1915: Season club memorial St. Wolfgang / Seepromenade
• 1920: Merkur fountain for Aachen (destroyed)
• 1923: Beethovenkopf (larger than life), wood, for the University of Bonn - design of the Neuerburg house in Cologne (group of the German cigarette industry)
• 1924: Max Bruch memorial for Bergisch Gladbach - memorial plaque for city architect Josef Stübben , Cologne
• 1925: Ball carrier, cigarette advertising figure for Heinrich Neuerburg, Cologne
• 1925: War memorial 1914–18 in Sankt Wolfgang im Salzkammergut / church
• 1928: six figures for the attic of the University of Bonn, depicting the university disciplines ( shell limestone )
• 1929: four larger-than-life groups of putti (the four elements) for the University of Bonn (destroyed)
• 1933: Sheet metal waltz (cast iron, 2.50 meters high) for the steel works in Bochum
• 1942: hospitality (statuette)
• 1945: Tomb for music professor Lafite, Vienna Central Cemetery - certificate of honor container (carved) on the occasion of the appointment of Archbishop Joseph Frings as cardinal
• 1947: Honorary certificate container (carved) on the occasion of Konrad Adenauer's appointment as an honorary citizen of the city of Cologne
• 1950: Tünnes and Schäl , wood, 4 m high, as a nail sculpture for the reconstruction of the Gürzenich in Cologne
• 1950s: Ceramic variations by Saint Wolfgang von Regensburg
• 1952: Boys playing with fish, bronze, for the fountain (atrium) of the main savings bank in Cologne
• 1954: two groups of figures, larger than life, Untersberg marble , a limestone from Austria: Mary with the twelve-year-old Jesus, St. Borromeo with the plague patient - for two churches in Africa - Gethsemane, wood, free work
• 1960: Sacred Heart Altar for St. Laurentius in Bergisch Gladbach - Christ figure, 4.30 m high, forged bronze, for St. Gertrud Church in Cincinnati (Ohio / USA) (design by the blacksmith Carl Wyland from Cologne)
• 1962: Portrait of Otto von Habsburg , bronze; Commissioned by the federal government
• 1963: Ecce Homo; Bronze, free labor - unfinished

Between the years mentioned there were study trips to different countries, exhibitions in different cities; Commissions from the public (municipality, church, industry, etc.) and private sector were consistently carried out in wood, stone, bronze and ceramics: some works were based on corresponding prices. Wallner gave shape to the wide-ranging field of the topic - the representation of humans and animals, of the allegorical, symbolic, ornamental, religious in their diverse relationships and shapes - in large and small sculptures, portraits, reliefs, statues, architectural sculptures, fountains, cemetery art, Badges and a. more.

Even though Wallner felt connected to nature - in this he found himself in the tradition of his homeland - he did not make a copy of reality. Wallner managed to bring his sculptures to light with the posture, sign language and gestures he chose, and thus to overcome realism as a reality that is merely depicted. For him, this attitude was deeply natural. It is therefore also logical that he rejected stylistic features of all -isms, such as futurism, surrealism, expressionism. His artistic question was not related to how something completely new and unprecedented could be created, but how the idea that was seen inside can be most convincingly designed. If elements of Art Nouveau can only be discovered in some of the early works of his time in Vienna , in his older work it had matured into a slightly abstract, simplistic form in favor of the essence of a motif.

This symbolist approach is clearly evident in the group of figures restored after 1945 on the attic of the University of Bonn. From left to right the most important university disciplines are shown allegorically : the darkness of history is illuminated by a young man carrying a torch, medicine as a “female” Aesculapian , then law as a male figure who holds the code of law. Following this alternating scheme comes the wise Sophia as the symbol of philosophy, the fifth statue represents theology through a sturdy man carrying a cross, and the series is concluded with natural science, another female figure who embodies the "naked facts" .-->

student

• Sepp Hürten , Cologne
• Heribert Calleen , Cologne
• Toni Zenz , Cologne
• Gretel Schulte-Hostedde , Berlin, Karlsruhe
• Hilde Broër , Berlin
• Hildegard Grunert , Waldbrunn (Westerwald)
• Albert Oesch , St. Gallen, Switzerland
• Ernst Wille , Cologne
• Vera Lwowski , Windesck / Sieg

literature

• Paul Bachmann: 75 Years of Cologne Werkschulen (Chronicle) 1994.
• Bessie Bennet: A potery by Wolfgang Wallner, Bulletin of the Art Institut of Chicago. 1920.
• Wolfram Hagspiel : Traces of the city, monuments in Cologne. Volume 8. 1996.
• Rüdiger Joppien: The Cologne factory schools 1920–1933. 1982.
• Barbara Maas: Iron Age. The blacksmith Carl Wyland. 1977.
• Hermann Mylius: The extension of the university building (Bonn). 1953.
• Wallner, Wolfgang . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 35 : Libra-Wilhelmson . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1942, p. 103 .
• Wallner, Wolfgang . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 5 : V-Z. Supplements: A-G . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1961, p. 75-76 .
• Horst-Pierre Bothin, Erhard Stang: Mysterious Bonn. Wartberg, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2003, ISBN 3-8313-1342-3 .
• Wolfgang Lorentz : Art is right (e). Sramek-Verlag, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-902638-27-4 .

Web links

Commons : Wolfgang Wallner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Description of the university attic in Horst-Pierre Bothin, Erhard Stang: Mysterious Bonn. Wartberg, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2003, ISBN 3-8313-1342-3 , p. 7.