Fritz Wotruba Austrian, 1907-1975

Fritz Wotruba (Vienna, Austria 1907 - Vienna, Austria 1975)

Born in Vienna to a family of Czech-Hungarian origins, he became an apprentice in an engraving workshop at a very young age, studying under H. Hanak at the Vienna school of arts and crafts. In 1925, eighteen years old, he joined the Viennese Secession and, in 1931, he had his first exhibition in Essen.

From 1932, he exhibited regularly in Europe and America until 1938, when he was forced to emigrate to Switzerland to escape Nazism. He frequented many influential personalities and artists of the time, such as Fritz and Editha Kamm, and Swiss patrons Philipp Etter, Georg Reinhart, Jean Rudolf von Salis and Robert Musil.

In 1945, at the end of the Second World War, he returned to Vienna, where he began teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts.

Around 1960, his work transformed to focus on scenography. Reflecting on space led him to expand towards natural and urban landscapes. Following these principles, he designed the Church of the Holy Trinity in the Viennese Mauer district, which he was not able to see completed.

He died in Vienna in 1975.

In the same year, a major exhibition was dedicated to him at the Rotonda della Besana in Milan and, in 1976, at the Belvedere Fort in Florence.

Copyright the artist. Photo UniCredit Group (Sebastiano Pellion di Persano)