Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
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Type | Public |
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Established | 1692 |
Rector | Johan Frederik Hartle |
Students | 1268 (in 2010) |
Location | , |
Website | www.akbild.ac.at |
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (German: Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) is a public art school of higher education in Vienna, Austria.
History[]
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy modelled on the Accademia di San Luca and the Parisien Académie de peinture et de sculpture by the court-painter Peter Strudel, who became the Praefectus Academiae Nostrae. In 1701 he was ennobled by Emperor Joseph I as Freiherr (Baron) of the Empire. With his death in 1714, the academy temporarily closed.[1]
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On 20 January 1725, Emperor Charles VI appointed the Frenchman Jacob van Schuppen 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). Upon Charles' death in 1740, the academy at first declined, however during the rule of his daughter Empress Maria Theresa, a new statute reformed the academy in 1751. The prestige of the academy grew during the deanships of Michelangelo Unterberger and Paul Troger, and in 1767 the archduchesses Maria Anna and Maria Carolina were made the first Honorary Members. In 1772, there were further reforms to the organisational structure. Chancellor Wenzel Anton Kaunitz 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 1822 the art cabinet grew significantly with the bequest of honorary member Anton Franz de Paula Graf Lamberg-Sprinzenstein. His collection still forms the backbone of the art on display.[2]
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In 1872 Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria approved a statute making the academy the supreme government authority for the arts. A new building was constructed according to plans designed by the faculty Theophil Hansen in the course of the layout of the Ringstraße boulevard. On 3 April 1877, the present-day building on Schillerplatz in the Innere Stadt district was inaugurated, the interior works, including ceiling frescos by Anselm Feuerbach, continued until 1892. In 1907 and 1908, young Adolf Hitler, who had come from Linz, was twice denied admission to the drawing class. He stayed in Vienna, subsisting on his orphan allowance, and tried unsuccessfully to continue his profession as an artist. Soon he had withdrawn into poverty and started selling amateur paintings, mostly watercolours, for meagre sustenance until he left Vienna for Munich in May 1913 (see also, Paintings by Adolf Hitler).[3]
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During the Austrian Anschluss to Nazi Germany from 1938–1945, the academy was forced to heavily reduce its number of Jewish staff. After World War II, the academy was reconstituted in 1955 and its autonomy reconfirmed. Eduard von Josch, the secretary of the Academy, was dismissed for being a member of the NSDAP.[4] The academy has had university 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:[5]
- Institute for Fine Arts, which houses thirteen departments: Abstract Painting; Art and Digital Media; Art and Photography; Arts and Research; Conceptual Art; Contextual Painting; Expanded Pictorial Space; Figurative Painting; Graphic Arts and Printmaking Techniques; Object Sculpture; Performative Art - Sculpture; Video and Video-installation; Textual Sculpture[6]
- 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. 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.
Notable alumni[]
- Maria Anwander
- Alois Arnegger
- Joannis Avramidis
- William Berczy
- Amoako Boafo
- Bernhard Cella
- Georg Decker
- Ludwig Deutsch
- Helmut Ditsch
- George Dury
- Antonín Engel
- Joseph Fleck
- Richard Gach
- Victor Gruen
- Sigurður Guðjónsson
- Helmuth Gräff
- Alice Berger Hammerschlag
- Cecil van Haanen
- Gottfried Helnwein
- Wolfgang Hollegha
- Hans Hollein
- Alfred Hrdlička
- Cornelia James[7]
- Gottfried Lindauer
- Franz Xaver Messerschmidt
- Uroš Predić
- Heinrich Rauchinger
- Constantin Daniel Rosenthal
- Egon Schiele
- Rudolph Michael Schindler
- Othmar Schimkowitz
- Frigyes Schulek
- Theodor Sockl
- Willi Soukop
- Hito Steyerl
- Katrin Lea Tag
- Otto Wagner
- Jacob Weidenmann
- Erwin Wurm
- Bruno Zach
Other students and professors[]
- Karl Aigen (1684–1762), student, director and professor
- Paul Troger (1698–1762)
- Johann Georg Platzer (1704–1761)
- Franz Anton Maulbertsch (1724–1796)
- Joseph Mössmer (1780-1845)
- Thomas Ender (1793–1875)
- Konstantin Danil (1802-1873)
- Peter Johann Nepomuk Geiger (1805–1880), professor
- Albert Zimmermann (1808–1888)
- Rudolf von Alt (1812–1905)
- Henrik Weber (1818–1866)
- Friedrich von Schmidt (1825–1891)
- Anselm Feuerbach (1829–1880), professor (1873)
- Rudolph Schwarz (1840–1912)
- Menci Clement Crnčić (1865–1930)
- Emil Fuchs (1866-1929)
- Peter Behrens (1868-1940)
- Maximilian Liebenwein (1869–1926)
- Clemens Holzmeister (1870-1928)
- Alois Arnegger (1879–1963)
- Robert Sedlacek (1881-1957)
- Richard Gerstl (1883–1908)
- Clemens Holzmeister (1886–1983)
- Leopold Matzal (1890-1956)
- Edwin Grienauer (1893–1964)
- Kurt Weiss (1895–1966)
- Caspar Neher (1897–1962)
- Norbert Troller (1900–1984))
- Greta Kempton, (1901-1991)
- Roland Rainer (1910–2004)
- Ludwig Merwart (1913–1979)
- Joannis Avramidis (1922–2016)
- Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928–2000)
- Gustav Peichl (1928-2019)
- Anton Lehmden (1929–2018)
- Ernst Fuchs (1930–2015)
- Harun Farocki (1944-2014)
- Gottfried Helnwein (born 1948)
- F. Scott Hess (born 1955)
- Oz Almog, (born 1956)
- Diedrich Diederichsen (born 1957)
- Nasrine Seraji (born 1957)
- Andrea Maria Dusl (born 1961)
- Daniel Richter (born 1962)
- Tamuna Sirbiladze (1971-2016)
- Saeed Danosian (1979-1985)
- Li Hua (born 1980)
- Hito Steyerl (born 1966)
References[]
- ^ "A Chronological History of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts". Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Retrieved November 27, 2014.
- ^ History of the art collection on the Academy's website
- ^ Pruitt, Sarah. "When Hitler Tried (and Failed) to Be an Artist". HISTORY. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
- ^ http://ns-zeit.akbild.ac.at/978-3-205-20291-2_OpenAccess.pdf
- ^ "Institutes". Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Retrieved November 27, 2014.
- ^ [1] Archived September 30, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Fowler, Susanne (23 November 2014). "Gloves Fit for a Queen, With Hands-On Craftsmanship". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. |
- Official website (in German and English)
- Exhibition catalogues of Academy of Fine Arts in the Belvedere Digital Library
- website of the Media Server
- Study in Austria: A Guide
Coordinates: 48°12′05″N 16°21′55″E / 48.20139°N 16.36528°E
- Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
- Universities and colleges in Austria
- Art schools in Austria
- Culture in Vienna
- 1692 establishments in Austria
- Educational institutions established in the 1690s
- Buildings and structures in Vienna
- Art museums and galleries in Vienna
- 1692 in art
- Theophil Hansen buildings