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HANS FRONIUS* (Sarajevo 1903 - 1988 Mödling)

Bundle of three woodcuts

Sickbed, 1927
woodcut/paper 29,9 x 24,8 cm
signed Hans Fronius, dated 1927

Couple with the cart, 1927
woodcut/paper 30 x 24,9 cm
signed Hans Fronius, dated 1927

Dray, 1927
woodcut/paper 31,2 x 23,4 cm
signed Hans Fronius, dated 1927

SCHÄTZPREIS / ESTIMATE °€ 150 - 300
STARTPREIS / STARTING PRICE °€ 150

Hans Fronius, great-grandson of the Biedermann painter and engraver Johann Nepomuks Pasini, was an Austrian artist who initially relied entirely on woodcuts. As a child, Fronius witnessed the assassination attempt on the heir to the throne, Franz Ferdinand. This experience is said to have shaped him throughout his life. In July 1914 he moved to Graz with his mother and sister. After the war, their father followed them. From 1922 to 1928 Fronius studied at the Vienna Academy with Karl Sterrer and Alois Delug. He evaded the academic historicism of his teachers and his traditional formal language. His art historical and painting interests lay in the works of Charles Meryon and Goya. James Ensor, Edvard Munch and the German Expressionists were also sources of inspiration. Franz's work pushed him towards pictorial design early on: while still in high school he tried his hand at illustrating Georg Büchner's "Danton's Death", and Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Chekhov also cast a spell on him. During the holidays, which the father of his painter friend Dolf Winternitz made possible, he went on study trips to Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and France. In 1930 Fronius decided to take the teaching examination for art education, mathematics and descriptive geometry. Teaching, initially at the Fürstenfeld secondary school and from 1960 to 1965 in Mödling, served as his bread and butter. With the dedication of the woodcut sequence for Kafka's story “The Metamorphosis” (1931) to Alfred Kubin, he achieved an artistic breakthrough. A lifelong friendship developed between Fronius and Kafka. Fronius, a member of the Graz Secession since 1923, continued to paint in the Expressionist style during the Nazi era. After the first exhibition of his illustrations of Kafka's work took place at the Prague Art Association in 1936 at Max Brod's instigation, he had to take a stand because of his “Jewish illustrations” and pledge his loyalty. Some of his exhibitions have been repeatedly banned. During the war, Fronius was employed as a frontline draftsman in Stalingrad and Italy. During a short vacation in 1944, 26 chalk drawings of Suetonius Nero from the emperor's biographies were created. In 1961, Fronius moved to Perchtoldsdorf near Vienna. Von 1964 bis zu seinem Tod 1988 war er ausschließlich als freischaffende Künstler tätig. Sein malerisches wie grafisches Werk wird aufgrund seines spontanen Gestus, der Erzählkraft und fantastischen Einbildungskraft als „Expressiver Realismus“ bezeichnet. Die thematische Spannbreite reicht von Porträts über literarische Motive bis zu Natur- und Städtebildern. Fronius betätigt sich darüber hinaus auch als Illustrator und veröffentlicht insgesamt 115 Bücher und Mappenwerke. Besonders bedeutend sind hier seine Illustrationen zu Werken von Franz Kafka und Edgar Allan Poe, die einem breiten Publikum bekannt sind und denen sich auch die 13 Zeichnungen zu Robert Louis Stevenson an die Seite stellen lassen. In seiner autobiografischen Publikation „Bilderbuch eines Lebens“ führt Fronius aus, er sei in seinem Werk dem „Sternbild Goya, Ensor, Kubin“ verpflichtet. Further artists and styles: Expressionism, Realism, Oil painting, Lithography, Landscape, Cityscape, Portrait

PLEASE NOTE:
The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights. In the case of normal taxation (marked ° at the estimate), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax is added to the sum of the highest bid and the buyer's premium. This amounts to 13% for paintings, drawings, graphic works and sculptures and 20% for photographs and all other items.
The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.