Walter Gaudnek (1 July 1931 – 23 October 2022) was a

modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...

ist and professor at the

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

. Gaudnek has been one of the main representatives of pop art since the 1970s. He is considered the only artist within pop art to also deal with religious topics (e.g.

Stations of the Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Way of Sorrows or the Via Crucis, refers to a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and accompanying prayers. The station ...

in St. Michael in Schweinfurt, Germany). He is known for

labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (, ) was an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the ...

installations of colorful canvases and his dedicated works of The Ten Commandments, which currently hang in Havana, Cuba.

Biography and work

Gaudnek was born in Fláje,

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

on 1 July 1931. Due to forced migration, he lost his

German Bohemian German Bohemians (german: Deutschböhmen und Deutschmährer, i.e. German Bohemians and German Moravians), later known as Sudeten Germans, were ethnic Germans living in the Czech lands of the Bohemian Crown, which later became an integral part o ...

homeland in 1946 after 18 months of child labor in the new Czechoslovakia. In 1947, he attended a Realschule in Schrobenhausen, and from 1948 to 1951 the Gymnasium in

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an independent city on the Danube in Upper Bavaria with 139,553 inhabitants (as of June 30, 2022). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan area. Ingolstadt is the second largest city in Upper Bav ...

. In 1951, he visited the Blocher School of Fine and Applied Arts in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

. From 1952-1957, he studied at the

Academy of Fine Arts, Munich The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (german: Akademie der Bildenden Künste München, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, ...

(

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

: ''Akademie der Bildenden Künste München'', also known as Munich Academy) as Meisterschueler of Professor Geitlinger, where he received the Jubilee scholarship of the City of Munich. In 1953, together with H.E. Gabriel, he founded the ''Neue Galerie'' in Ingolstadt and also the Galerie 17 in Munich. Gaudnek received a Fulbright Scholarship in 1957 for study and teaching in the United States. From 1957 to 1959, he worked as a teaching assistant and instructor at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

, Los Angeles, earning his Master of Arts degree in January 1959. After Los Angeles, Gaudnek moved to New York City. In summer of 1960, Gaudnek formed the 10/4 GROUP with artist Ray Schultz. He turned his Greenwich Village, third-floor, walk-up studio at 71 Fourth Avenue into a small gallery called the 10/4 Gallery, where he showed group and one-man exhibitions of his work and that of three or four other painters and sculptors, including Schultz, Spyer, and Hoberman. Gaudnek gained the public's attention when he was included in the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

's fourteenth New Talent Exhibition: ''Baden, Gaudnek, Rabkin: New Talent Exhibition'' (20 September – 30 October 1960). In 1961, his cosmic installation entitled Unlimited Dimensions was displayed at the Martha Jackson Gallery, where it earned him the NYTIMES review "best show of the year". He taught Art History at C.W. Post in Long Island from 1964 to 1967, where he founded the C.W. Post Fine Arts Museum. In 1968, Gaudnek did his doctorate at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

on the topic ''The symbolic meaning of the cross in the American Contemporary Painting''. Religious themes continued to determine his work. Since 1970, he has been a professor at the

for painting, graphic design, art history and art theory, and in 2017 was paid $103,925 per year. Among his numerous teaching awards, he received the UCF Researcher of the Year award in 1990. He was honored in 1994 with the Sudentendeutschen Kulterpreis fuer Bildende Kunst und Architektur. In 1998, he became a full member of the ''Sudeten German Academy of Sciences and Arts''. In 2011, Gaudnek was awarded the ''Public Service Medal'' of the municipality of

Altomünster Altomünster is a municipality in the district of Dachau in Bavaria in Germany. Geography Geographical location The market is located northwest of Dachau and almost in the middle of the triangle formed by the cities of Munich, Augsburg and Ingo ...

Gaudnek Museum

The Gaudnek Europe Museum (GEM) in Altomünster was founded in 1999. On three floors Gaudnek presents roughly 400 of his paintings and

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

s. The museum displays a collection of paintings, drawings, watercolors, collages, assemblages, objects, sculptures, printmaking, the ''Theater of the suitcase'', and an archive of photographs and documents from the years 1949–2005. In 2013 the exhibition ''witches and saints'' opened.Pop-Art zwischen Hexen und Heiligen
- (Dachauer Nachrichten, 28 May 2013)

References

External links

Homepage of Walter Gaudnek

Walter Gaudnek: Professor of Art, Painting
– (

UCF The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...

)
Walter Gaudnek: Alchemy & Magic; Medieval Images for the 21st Century
– (

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaudnek, Walter 1931 births 2022 deaths 20th-century German male artists 20th-century German painters 21st-century German male artists 21st-century German painters German male painters Modern artists People from Most District Pop artists Sudeten German people