Fritz Wotruba (23 April 1907,

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Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

– 28 August 1975,

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) was an

n sculptor of Czecho- Hungarian descent. He was considered one of the most notable

sculptors 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 ...

of the 20th century in

. In his work, he increasingly dissolves figurative components in favor of geometrical abstraction with the shape of the

cube In geometry, a cube is a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex. Viewed from a corner it is a hexagon and its net is usually depicted as a cross. The cube is the only ...

as the basic form.

Life

Fritz Wotruba was born in 1907 as the youngest of eight children of Adolf Wotruba (who came from

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

to work as a

tailor A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century. History Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...

's assistant) and Maria Wotruba, née Kocsi (from

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

, working as a

maid A maid, or housemaid or maidservant, is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era domestic service was the second largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maids ...

), in Vienna. Adolf was an alcoholic and violent, often beating his sons and his wife - as described in the auto-biography of

Elias Canetti Elias Canetti (; bg, Елиас Канети; 25 July 1905 – 14 August 1994) was a German-language writer, born in Ruse, Bulgaria to a Sephardic family. They moved to Manchester, England, but his father died in 1912, and his mother took her ...

, ''Das Augenspiel'', who befriended him in 1933, writing a very positive assessment of his work in 1954. His eldest brother was imprisoned for armed robbery and murder, and died in prison at Stein on the Danube. Fritz, the youngest, was spared from his father's wrath but was kept under close surveillance by the police due to the police records of his three elder brothers, and Canetti believed that his fascination with sculpting in stone was a form of psychological defence against his traumatic childhood.

Training and early commissions

From 1921 to 1925, he was trained as an engraver, as an

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

in the engraving and die cutting workshop of Josef Schantin in Vienna. From February to summer 1926, he attended the arts and trades school of the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry and open

evening course Evening is the period of a day that starts at the end of the afternoon and overlaps with the beginning of night. The exact times when evening begins and ends depend on location, time of year, and culture, but it is generally regarded as beginni ...

s on

nude Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to h ...

drawing. In fall 1926, he enrolled in studies in sculpting at the arts and trades school. Through the end of his studies, he was a student of Anton Hanak, and received a

stipend A stipend is a regular fixed sum of money paid for services or to defray expenses, such as for scholarship, internship, or apprenticeship. It is often distinct from an income or a salary because it does not necessarily represent payment for work p ...

by the

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, the

Austrian Chamber of Labor The Chamber of Labour (German: ''Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte'', shortform ''Arbeiterkammer'' or ''AK''), is an organisation that represents the interests of 3 million Austrian employees and consumers. Membership is compulsory for all em ...

and the municipality of Vienna - which was obtained for him by the ministrations of

Anna Mahler Anna Justine Mahler (15 June 1904 – 3 June 1988) was an Austrian sculptor. Early life Born in Vienna, Anna Mahler was the second child of the composer Gustav Mahler and his wife Alma Schindler. They nicknamed her 'Gucki' on account of her b ...

, who was his pupil and lover. In 1933, he had a studio under the

Stadtbahn ' (; German for "city railway"; plural ') is a German word referring to various types of urban rail transport. One type of transport originated in the 19th century, firstly in Berlin and followed by Vienna, where rail routes were created that co ...

, or Metro Rail Tracks. Canetti :"..it consisted of two big vaults supporting the Stadtbahn trestle; in one stood figures that would have got in his way while he was working in the other. When the weather wasn't too bad, he liked best to work in the open..." He continued to live at home with his widowed mother and his youngest sister in their old home in 31 Florianigasse, where he had been born, until he escaped after the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germa ...

and Hitler's dictatorship over Austria to Switzerland for the duration of the war.

Work

Probably his greatest work, on which he worked until his death, was the planning of the Church "of the Holy Trinity" in

Mauer, Vienna Mauer (German for ''"wall"''; Central Bavarian: ''Maua'') is a former village of Lower Austria that has been part of Vienna since 1938. Today's cadastral community belongs to the 23rd District of Vienna, called Liesing. In the west, Mauer border ...

, better known as Wotruba Church. He did not live to see the completion of the church in 1976. Many of his statues can be seen in public parks in Vienna. The ''Lying Adolescent'' is located in an exhibition in the

Albertina The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt (First District) of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well ...

. He escaped to Switzerland upon Hitler's ascent to power. A number of his sculptures were either lost or destroyed during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. In 1947, Wotruba was awarded the City of Vienna Prize for Visual Arts and in 1955, he received the Grand Austrian State Prize for Visual Arts. He is buried in the

Vienna Central Cemetery The Vienna Central Cemetery (german: Wiener Zentralfriedhof) is one of the largest cemeteries in the world by number of interred, and is the most well-known cemetery among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries. The cemetery's name is descriptive of its ...

Gallery of Works

File:Wotruba Denkmal WWI Donawitz c.jpg, ''Man, condemn the war'' (Mensch, verdamme den Krieg), c. 1932; stone sculpture File:Wien - Zentralfriedhof - Grabmal für Selma Halban-Kurz - Figur von Fritz Wotruba.jpg, ''Tomb for Selma Halban-Kurz'', 1934–36; stone sculpture File:KMM Wotruba Stehende Frau.JPG, ''Standing Woman'' (Stehende Frau), 1947; stone sculpture File:Fritz Wotruba - Frauliche Felsen-1948.jpg, ''Female Rock'' (Frauliche Felsen), 1948; stone sculpture File:KMM Wotruba Hockende Figur.JPG, ''Croucing Figure'' (Hockende Figur), 1950–51; bronze sculpture File:Fritz Wotruba - Die Liegende - Universität Mozarteum (4).jpg, ''Reclining Figure'' (Die Liegende), early 1950'; bronze sculpture File:KMM Wotruba Relief.JPG, ''Relief'', 1960; stone sculpture File:Fritz Wotruba, Große Figur.jpg, ''Large Figure'' (Große Figur), 1965; bronze sculpture File:Schott Richard Wagner.jpg, ''Sculpture honouring Richard Wagner''. 1970; bronze File:Wotruba Dreifaltigkeitskirche0039.JPG, ''Trinity Church'' (Dreifaltigkeitskirche), in

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- Mauer, built in 1974-76

References

External links

Fritz Wotruba Society

in

aeiou Encyclopedia Austria-Forum is a freely accessible online collection of reference works in both German and English about Austria-related topics. Background The predecessor of Austria-Forum, the AEIOU project was launched in 1996 by the Austrian Federal Minist ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wotruba, Fritz Cubist artists Austrian sculptors Austrian male sculptors Austrian people of Czech descent Austrian people of Hungarian descent Artists from Vienna Burials at the Vienna Central Cemetery 1907 births 1976 deaths Recipients of the Grand Austrian State Prize 20th-century sculptors

Life

Training and early commissions

Work

Gallery of Works

Further reading

References

External links