Helmuth Gräff (born 12 April 1958 in

Gars am Kamp Gars am Kamp is a market town at the Kamp river (Kamptal) in the district of Horn, region Waldviertel in the Austrian state Lower Austria with 3,542 inhabitants (2016). History Gars was between 1075 - 1095, during the reign of the House of Babenb ...

) is an

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ** Austria-Hungary ** Austria ...

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

drawer A drawer ( ) is a box-shaped container inside a piece of furniture that can be pulled out horizontally to access its contents. Drawers are built into numerous types of furniture, including cabinets, chests of drawers (bureaus), desks, and ...

and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

. Gräffs painterly style is rooted on the one hand in the artistic heritage of

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...

, and on the other hand he can also be regarded as a precursor or heritage of the Neuen Wilde.

Life

Helmuth Gräff is the youngest son of Rudolf Gräff (1919-2006),

SPÖ The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...

local politician and

lay judge A lay judge, sometimes called a lay assessor (law), assessor, is a person assisting a judge in a trial. Lay judges are used in some civil law (legal system), civil law jurisdictions. Lay judges are appointed volunteers and often require some legal ...

, and Leopoldine Gräff (1923-2023; née Kimmerl) from

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Schwechat Schwechat () is a city southeast of Vienna known for the Vienna International Airport and Schwechater beer. The city is home to the Oil refinery, refineries of the Austrian national oil company OMV. Geography Schwechat is named after the river S ...

, who belongs to the family of former imperial judge Matthias Kimmerl of Kaiserebersdorf (1818–1883),Helmuth Gräff at austria-forum
/ref> after whom Vienna's ''Kimmerlgasse'' is named. His paternal ancestors were politically active and religious free thinkers with their own family coat of arms (related to the dutch (De) Graeff family),Magazin "Schaufenster" der Kultur.Region Niederösterreich, Ausgabe I, 2022: "Eine Familien-Ausstellung" p 12-15; p 14
and it is said that they are of old noble origin of the Carniolan area. Gräff was married first to Martina Maria Gach, daughter of the architect Richard Gach. His only son

Matthias Laurenz Gräff Matthias Laurenz Gräff (also known as ''Matthias Laurenz Gräff Ilpenstein''; born 19 July 1984) is an Austrian-Greek academic painter, private historian, politician, political activist and co-founder and organizer of the non-partisan platform ...

works as an academic painter and political activist and in 2013 he became chairman of the worldwide '' Family Association Gräff-Graeff'' (Familienverband Gräff-Graeff e.V.). In his youth Helmuth Gräff drew thousands of artworks and kept on practising until the age of 20 where he began to study at the Wiener Kunstschule by Fritz Martinz. Between 1979 and 1983 he studied art at the

Academy of Fine Arts Vienna The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna () is a public art school in Vienna, Austria. Founded in 1688 as a private academy, it is now a public university. The academy is also known for twice rejecting admission to a young Adolf Hitler in 1907 and 1908. ...

of Gustav Hessings and later

Friedensreich Hundertwasser Friedrich Stowasser (15 December 1928 – 19 February 2000), better known by his pseudonym Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser (), was an Austrian visual artist and architect who also worked in the field of environmental protection ...

s masterclass of painting. Since 1989 is Gräff self-employed as an academic painter, drawer and poet. The themes of his artworks are on the one hand compositions with spiritual and religious contents, and on the other hand works in the nature (Italy, France, Florida, Bali). As a result of a sports accident and the fracture of three thoracic vertebrae in 1995, Helmuth Gräff suffered from persistent back pain, which increasingly impaired his artistic work. According to Gräff's own account on his website, in 2018 he attempted suicide with a 30-fold overdose of insulin, which resulted in a stroke. He did this because of his art collector's withdrawal of a "

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

Life Cycle" comprising several hundred drawings and oil paintings. Gräff exhibited among others in the Palais Palffy,

Palais Todesco ''Palais Todesco'' is a '' Ringstraßenpalais'' in Vienna, Austria, constructed from 1861 to 1864 on plans by architect Theophil Hansen. It was built for the aristocratic family. One of the inhabitants was Baroness Sophie von Todesco, who estab ...

and Museum of Young Art as well in the

Leopold Museum The Leopold Museum, housed in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria, is home to one of the largest collections of modern Austrian art, featuring artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, and Richard Gerstl. It contains the w ...

Vienna. His artworks were auctionated at

Dorotheum The Dorotheum () is one of the world's oldest auction houses and is the largest auction house of art items in Continental Europe. Established by Emperor Joseph I in 1707, it has its headquarters in Vienna on the Dorotheergasse and branches in ...

and Auktionshaus Im Kinsky.

Collections

* Sammlung Dr. Rudolf Leopold (

), Vienna/AT * Museum/Sammmlung Heinz Angerlehner, Upper Austria/AT

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions: * 2019 "Mein Leben für die Kunst", Kunstmuseum Waldviertel, Schrems, AT * 2016 "Unterwegs ...",

, Vienna/AT * 2014 "Memento mori", KunstSalon, Vienna/AT * 2011 " La pura women's health resort kamptal", Gars am Kamp/AT * 2010 "Intarsien - Eine malerische Rundreise", Palais Palffy, Vienna/AT * 2010 "Frühlingskantate", Salon - Galerie Cornelia Mensdorff-Pouilly, Vienna/AT * 2010 "Gräff meets OK", Oskar Kokoschka-Dokumentationszentrum, Pöchlarn/AT * 2008 "Sunloft Center" und Wyvern Hotel, Punta Gorda, Florida/USA * 2008 "Zwischen den Welten", Dommuseum, Vienna/AT * 2008 "Zwischen den Welten", Buchpräsentation und Ausstellung, MOYA - Museum of Young Art, Vienna/AT * 2007 Galerie Weihergut, Salzburg/AT Group Exhibitions: * 2015: "Matthias Laurenz Gräff und Helmuth Gräff. Zwischen den Welten - Zwischen den Generationen", Galerie Daliko, Krems an der Donau * 2011 "The excitement continues - Zeitgenössische Kunst aus der Sammlung Leopold II",

, Vienna/ATPressetext aus dem Leopold Museum. "THE EXCITEMENT CONTINUES. Zeitgenössische Kunst aus der Sammlung Leopold II"
/ref> * 2011 "Gräff trifft Seitz", Exhibition with Friedrich Martin Seitz, The land of Lower Austria- Ausstellungsbrücke, St. Pölten/AT

Literature

* Heinrich Fuchs, Die österreichischen Maler des 20. Jahrhunderts. Ergänzungsband 1, p. 69 * Helmuth Gräff. Edition Thurnhof, Heft No 5, anlässlich der Personalausstellung in der Horner Galerie Thurnhof, 1990, 20 pages. * Helmuth Gräff, Akt - Landschaft - Allegorie. Edition M wie Kunst in der Bibliothek der Provinz. Verlag für Literatur, Kunst und Musikalien, 2005, 102 pages. . * Helmuth Gräff, Zwischen den Welten. Dionysisch - Apollinisch - Erde - Wasser - Feuer - Luft. Verlag Bibliothek der Provinz, 2008, 222 pages.

References

External links

Profile
artfacts.net; accessed 22 September 2015.
Profile
basis-wien.at; accessed 22 September 2015.

at

Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The German National Library (DNB; ) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to collect, permanently archive, comprehens ...

Helmuth Gräff at artnet.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graff, Helmuth 1958 births Living people 20th-century Austrian painters Austrian male painters 21st-century Austrian painters 21st-century Austrian male artists 20th-century Austrian male artists