Alfred Wickenburg

(Bad Gleichenberg 1885 - 1978 Graz)

In 1885 Alfred Wickenburg was born into a noble family. Coming from a culture-oriented environment, Alfred Wickenburg first studied at the University of Munich, later in Paris and finally in Stuttgart. Stylistically, Alfred Wickenburg is part of Cubism, Futurism and Pittura metafisica. In 1923 he founded the "Grazer Sezession" together with Wilhelm Thönyin. In Graz, he also taught at the Gymnasium, later in more specific branches such as landscape and still painting. In 1956 he was awarded the Grand Austrian State Prize for Fine Arts.

1904 Alfred WIckenburg goes to Munich to study at the Azbe school. After a year, he went to Paris for four years to study under Jean-Paul Laurens. This is followed by studying in Stuttgart with Christian Landenberger and Adolf Hölzel. Embossed by the many different teachers, Wickenburg starts to develope his own specific style. His artworks are characterized by the reduction of the depicted motif to the necessary elements, as well as a balanced interplay of colors, shapes and lines. Until 1918 he worked as a freelance artist and spent the years between 1920 and 1923 studying in Italy. Besides large-scale paintings, he also produces smaller drawings and paintings on glass. Together with his fellow artists, Wilhelm Thöny and Fritz Silberbauer, he founded the "Grazer Sezession" and is thus the founder of Styrian classical modernism. During the period of National Socialism he changes his style towards the public, because his art is described as "entartet". He keeps his "modern" style in secret. Between 1939 and 1945 he was a member of the Vienna Secession. He is invited to the Venice Biennale four times and to the World Exposition in 1937. Wickenburg also receivs the Grand Austrian State Prize in 1956 and the Austrian Honorary Badge for Science and Art in 1969. In 1952 he went as a delegate of Austria to UNESCO in Venice. He remained artistically active until his death at the age of 93. 1978 the artist dies in Graz.