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Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

Overview
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna is an institution of higher education in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...

, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...

.

The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy by the court-painter Peter Strudl, who became the Praefectus Academiae Nostrae. In 1701 he was ennobled as Baron of the Empire. With his death in 1714, the academy temporarily closed.

On 20 January 1725, Emperor Karl VI
Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles VI was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary , King of Bohemia and Archduke of Austria from 1711 to 1740...

 appointed the Frenchman Jacob van Schuppen
Jacob van Schuppen
Jacob van Schuppen was an Austrian painter.Born in Fontainebleau, France, he worked in the Netherlands before moving to Vienna. In 1725 he was appointed director of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, when it was refounded by Emperor Charles VI as the k.k...

 as Prefect and Director of the Academy, which was refounded as the k.k.
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Encyclopedia
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna is an institution of higher education in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...

, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...

.

History


The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy by the court-painter Peter Strudl, who became the Praefectus Academiae Nostrae. In 1701 he was ennobled as Baron of the Empire. With his death in 1714, the academy temporarily closed.

On 20 January 1725, Emperor Karl VI
Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles VI was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary , King of Bohemia and Archduke of Austria from 1711 to 1740...

 appointed the Frenchman Jacob van Schuppen
Jacob van Schuppen
Jacob van Schuppen was an Austrian painter.Born in Fontainebleau, France, he worked in the Netherlands before moving to Vienna. In 1725 he was appointed director of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, when it was refounded by Emperor Charles VI as the k.k...

 as Prefect and Director of the Academy, which was refounded as the k.k. Hofakademie der Maler, Bildhauer und Baukunst (Imperial and Royal Court Academy of painters, sculptors and architecture). During the rule of Empress Maria Theresa
Maria Theresa of Austria
...

, a new statute reformed the academy in 1751. The prestige of the academy grew, and in 1767 Archduchesses Charlotte Karoline and the archduchess Maria Anna
Maria Anna of Austria
Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria...

 were made the first Honorary Members of the Academy.

In 1772, there were further reforms to the organisational structure. Chancellor Kuntz integrated all existing art schools into the k.k. vereinigten Akademie der bildenden Künste (Imperial and Royal Unified Academy of Fine Arts). The word "vereinigten" (unified) was later dropped.

In 1872 Emperor Franz Joseph I
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I , reigned as Emperor of Austria and King of Bohemia from 1848 until 1916 and as King of Hungary and Crotia from 1848 until 1916 .-Early life:Franz Joseph was born in the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, the oldest son of...

 approved a statute making the academy the supreme government authority for the arts. A new building was constructed by Theophil Freiherr von Hansen
Theophil Freiherr von Hansen
Baron Theophil Edvard von Hansen was a Danish architect who later became an Austrian citizen...

 during the building of the Ringstraße
Ringstraße
The Ringstraße is a circular road surrounding the Innere Stadt district of Vienna, Austria and is one of its main sights...

. On April 1 1877, the new building at the Schillerplatz was inaugurated, where it remains today.

During the Nazi Occupation
Anschluss
The ' , also known as the ', was the 1938 de facto annexation of Austria into Greater Germany by the Nazi regime....

 from 1938-1945, the academy was forced to heavily reduce its number of Jewish staff. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the academy was reconstituted in 1955 and its autonomy reconfirmed. It has had university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

 status since 1998, but retained its original name. It is currently the only Austrian university that doesn't have the word "university" in its name.

Structure


The academy is divided into the following institutes:
  • Institute for Fine Arts, which houses three departments for painting, drawing, visual arts, media, sculpture.
  • Institute for Art Theory and Cultural Studies (art theory, philosophy, history);
  • Institute for Conservation and Restoration;
  • Institute for Natural Sciences and Technologies in Art;
  • Institute for Secondary School Teaching Degrees (craft, design, textile arts);
  • Institute for Art and Architecture.


The Academy currently has about 900 students, almost a quarter of which are foreign students. Its faculty includes "stars" such as Peter Sloterdijk
Peter Sloterdijk
Peter Sloterdijk is a German philosopher and a professor of philosophy and media theory at the University of Art and Design Karlsruhe.- Biography :...

. Its library houses approx. 110,000 volumes and its "etching cabinet" (Kupferstichkabinett) has about 150,000 drawings and prints. The collection is one of the biggest in Austria, and is used for academic purposes, although portions are also open to the general public.

Famous graduates

  • Alois Arnegger
    Alois Arnegger
    Alois Arnegger was an Austrian painter.Arnegger was born in Vienna. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and was taught by Robert Russ und August Eisenmenger...

  • Joannis Avramidis
    Joannis Avramidis
    Joannis Avramidis is a Greek-Austrian sculptor. He was born in Batumi, Georgia in 1922.He studied in Batumi and later at Fritz Wotruba in Vienna.He became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and from 1966 in Hamburg. In 1962 he represented Austria at the Venice Biennale....

  • William Berczy
    William Berczy
    William Berczy was a Canadian pioneer and painter....

  • Joanna Gleich
    Joanna Gleich
    Joanna Gleich Joanna Gleich Joanna Gleich (born 28 September 1959 in Kluczbork (Poland) lives and works since 1989 as painter in Vienna, Austria. A student of Wolfgang Hollegha and Josef Mikl at the Vienna Akademie der bildenden Künste, she has exhibited in the United States, Austria, Germany and...

  • Gottfried Helnwein
    Gottfried Helnwein
    Gottfried Helnwein is an Austrian-Irish fine artist, painter, photographer, installation and performance artist.-Work:Helnwein studied at the University of Visual Art in Vienna...

  • Wolfgang Hollegha
    Wolfgang Hollegha
    Wolfgang Hollegha is an Austrian painter.- Biography :From 1947 to 1954 he studied at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna with Josef Dobrovsky and Herbert Boeckl. In 1956, together with Josef Mikl, Markus Prachensky and Arnulf Rainer, he formed the "Malergruppe St. Stephan"...

  • Alfred Hrdlicka
    Alfred Hrdlicka
    Alfred Hrdlicka is an Austrian sculptor, draughtsman, painter and artist. His surname is sometimes written Hrdlička....

  • Constantin Daniel Rosenthal
    Constantin Daniel Rosenthal
    Constantin Daniel Rosenthal was a Romanian painter and sculptor of Hungarian birth and a 1848 revolutionary, best known for his portraits and his choice of Romanian Romantic nationalist subjects.-Early career:Born into a Jewish merchant family in Pest , he left the city...

  • Egon Schiele
    Egon Schiele
    Egon Schiele was an Austrian painter. A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century....

  • Othmar Schimkowitz
    Othmar Schimkowitz
    Othmar Schimkowitz was a Hungarian-born architectural sculptor with work on the greatest landmarks of the Vienna Secession.- Life :...

  • Willi Soukop
    Willi Soukop
    Willi Soukop, RA was a sculptor, member of the Royal Academy and early teacher of Elisabeth Frink.Wilhelm Joseph Soukop was the son of a Moravian shoemaker whose horrific experiences in the First World War led to a mental breakdown and his disappearance immediately following the war’s end.From an...


Other students and professors

  • Paul Troger
    Paul Troger
    Paul Troger was an Austrian painter, draughtsman and printmaker of the late Baroque period. Troger's illusionistic ceiling paintings in fresco are notable for their dramatic vitality of movement and their palette of light colors.Paul Troger’s style, particularly in his frescoes, dominated Austrian...

     (1698 - 1762)
  • Franz Christoph Janneck (1703 - 1761)
  • Johann Georg Platzer (1704 - 1761)
  • Franz Anton Maulbertsch
    Franz Anton Maulbertsch
    Franz Anton Maulbertsch was an Austrian painter and engraver, one of the most renowned exponents of roccoco painting in the German region....

     (1724 - 1796)
  • Franz Xaver Kirchebner (1736 - 1815)
  • Karel Postl (1769 - 1818)
  • Matthäus Loder (1781 - 1828)
  • Franz Xaver Petter (1791 - 1866)
  • Thomas Ender (1793 - 1875)
  • Joseph Edward von Gillern (1794 - 1845)
  • Eduard Gurk (1801 - 1841)
  • Albert Zimmermann (1808 - 1888)
  • Rudolf von Alt (1812 - 1905)
  • Andreas Lach (1817 - 1882)
  • Emanuel Stöckler (1819 - 1893)
  • Friedrich von Schmidt
    Friedrich von Schmidt
    Friedrich von Schmidt was an architect who worked in late 19th century Vienna....

     (1825 - 1891)
  • Anselm Feuerbach
    Anselm Feuerbach
    Anselm Feuerbach was a German painter. He was the leading classicist painter of the German 19th-century school...

     (1829 - 1880), professor (1873)
  • August Eisenmenger (1830 - 1907), student, since 1872 professor
  • Otto Wagner
    Otto Wagner
    Otto Koloman Wagner was an Austrian architect.Wagner was born in Penzing, a district in Vienna. He studied in Berlin and Vienna. In 1864, he started designing his first buildings in the historicist style...

     (1841 - 1918)
  • Ferdinand Demetz (1842 - 1902)
  • Franz Tavella (1844 - 1931)
  • Anton Hlavaček (1842 - 1926)
  • Rodolphe Ernst (1854 - 1932)
  • Hans Bitterlich (1860 - 1949)
  • Franz Baumgartner (1876 - 1946)
  • Alois Arnegger
    Alois Arnegger
    Alois Arnegger was an Austrian painter.Arnegger was born in Vienna. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and was taught by Robert Russ und August Eisenmenger...

     (1879 - 1963)
  • Clemens Holzmeister
    Clemens Holzmeister
    Clemens Holzmeister was a prominent Austrian architect and stage designer of the early twentieth century. The Austrian Academy of Fine Arts listed his life's work as containing 673 projects. He is the father of Judith Holzmeister.Holzmeister was born in the village of Fulpmes in the Tyrol state of...

     (1886 - 1983)
  • Kamil Hilbert (1891 - 1895)
  • Edwin Grienauer
    Edwin Grienauer
    Edwin Grienauer was an Austrian sculptor and medalist. He was born and died in Vienna.-Life:Edwin Grienauer was the son of cello player Karl Grienauer and opera singer Helene Schott. His father migrated to the U.S. to pursue his musical career, leaving Edwin to fend for himself in Vienna...

     (1893 - 1964)
  • Kurt Weiss (1895 - 1966)
  • Caspar Neher
    Caspar Neher
    Caspar Neher was a Austrian-German scenographer known principally for his career-long working relationship with Bertolt Brecht. They were school friends who were separated for a time by the first world war, during which Neher was awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class...

     (1897 - 1962)
  • Hans Knesl (1905 - 1971)
  • Karl Nieschlag (1909 - 1975)
  • Roland Rainer
    Roland Rainer
    Roland Rainer was an Austrian architect.Born in Klagenfurt, Roland Rainer decided to become an architect when he was 18, so he studied at the Vienna University of Technology. His thesis was about the Karlsplatz in Vienna. Then, he left Austria visiting the Netherlands and the German Academy for...

     (1910 - 2004)
  • Heinz Leinfellner (1911 - 1974)
  • Lucas Suppin (1911 - 1998)
  • Ludwig Merwart
    Ludwig Merwart
    Ludwig Merwart was an influential Austrian painter and graphic artist. He is an important representative of abstract expressionism and was a major force in graphic arts and prints, especially after World War II...

     (1913 - 1979)
  • Joannis Avramidis
    Joannis Avramidis
    Joannis Avramidis is a Greek-Austrian sculptor. He was born in Batumi, Georgia in 1922.He studied in Batumi and later at Fritz Wotruba in Vienna.He became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and from 1966 in Hamburg. In 1962 he represented Austria at the Venice Biennale....

     (born 1922)
  • Gerhard Swoboda (1923 - 1974)
  • August Stimpfl (born 1924)
  • Friedensreich Hundertwasser
    Friedensreich Hundertwasser
    Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser was an Austrian painter and architect. Born Friedrich Stowasser in Vienna, he became one of the best-known contemporary Austrian artists, although controversial,by the end of the 20th century...

     (1928 - 2000)
  • Gustav Peichl
    Gustav Peichl
    Gustav Peichl is an Austrian architect. Gustav built the EFA Radio Satellite Station in Aflenz Austria. And - is Ironimus - caricaturist.-External links:*...

     (born 1928)
  • Anton Lehmden
    Anton Lehmden
    Anton Lehmden is an Austrian painter, draughtsman, and printmaker.Lehmden was a co-founder, together with Ernst Fuchs, Rudolf Hausner, Arik Brauer and Wolfgang Hutter, of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism...

     (born 1929)
  • Ernst Fuchs
    Ernst Fuchs (artist)
    Ernst Fuchs is an Austrian visionary painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, architect, stage designer, composer, poet, singer and one of the founders of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism.-Life and Work:...

     (born 1930)
  • Timo Penttilä (born 1931)
  • Andreas Urteil (1933 - 1963)
  • Adi Holzer (born 1936)
  • Harun Farocki
    Harun Farocki
    Harun Farocki is a German filmmaker of Czech descent.He has made over 90 films, the vast majority of them short experimental documentaries...

     (born 1944)
  • Erich Wonder (born 1944)
  • Reinhard Puch (born 1947)
  • Gottfried Helnwein
    Gottfried Helnwein
    Gottfried Helnwein is an Austrian-Irish fine artist, painter, photographer, installation and performance artist.-Work:Helnwein studied at the University of Visual Art in Vienna...

     (born 1948)
  • Manfred Deix (born 1949)
  • Sepp Nordegg (1913 - 1984)
  • Andrea Maria Dusl
    Andrea Maria Dusl
    Andrea Maria Dusl is an Austrian/Swedish film director, author and illustrator.Between 1981 and 1985 the daughter of Austrian architect Erwin H. Dusl and Swedish captain's family Pettersson's descendant Monica Jüllig studied stage design at Vienna's Akademie der Bildenden Künste and promoted as...

     (born 1961)
  • Daniel Richter
    Daniel Richter
    Daniel Richter is a German artist based in Berlin and Hamburg.Richter attended Hochschule für bildenden Künste in Hamburg from 1991-1995....

     (born 1962)
  • Martin Kohlbauer (born 1956)
  • Hans Scheirl (born 1956)
  • Gunter Damisch (born 1958)
  • Erwin Bohatsch (born 1951)
  • Diedrich Diederichsen (born 1957)

Young Adolf Hitler denied admission to Academy


In 1907 and 1908, a prospective student from Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately 30 km south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube...

, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...

 by the name of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...

 was twice denied admission to this Academy for Art Studies. He stayed in Vienna and tried unsuccessfully to continue his profession as an artist. Soon he had withdrawn into poverty and started selling amateur paintings, mostly watercolours
Watercolor painting
Watercolor or Watercolour is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork, in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water soluble vehicle...

, for meagre sustenance until the outbreak of the First World War
World War I
World War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...

.

External links