Lot 74: Rudolf Szyszkowitz(St. Martin near Villach

Rudolf Szyszkowitz(St. Martin near Villach 1905-1976 Graz) "November Landscape", titled as inscribed on the stretcher, monogrammed SZ, oil on canvas, 49 x 63 cm, framed, (K)Provenance: private property, Enzersfeld, Lower AustriaRudolf Szyszkowitz was a painter, graphic artist, and art teacher. At the age of 15 he joined the Catholic Youth Movement; in the "Bund Neuland" he found the friends and the spiritual home he was to feel attached to throughout his life and that also were to determine his art to a large degree. Between 1921 and 1925 he attended the Department of Sculpture at the School of Arts and Crafts in Graz, headed by Wilhelm Gösser; subsequently he studied at the Vienna Academy under Karl Sterrer, and between 1929 and 1933 was one of Rudolf Bacher's master students. Having exhibited his works at the Seckau Monastery in 1928 and at the Joanneum in Graz in 1932, he was awarded the Silver Medal of the City of Graz in 1934. In 1935 he won a distinctive award within the framework of the Austrian National Art Award and was entrusted with the formation of a master class for painting at the School of Arts and Crafts in Graz, which he headed until late 1967. Numerous invitations to take part in international exhibitions and to hold lectures abroad, as well as the Gold Medal of the International Biennial of Contemporary Church Art in Salzburg (1966), are proof of the fact that Szyszkowitz was held in high esteem as an artist and teacher also beyond Styria. Eventually, he accepted a call to the International Summer Academy in Salzburg as the successor of Oskar Kokoschkas, where he conducted the seminar for figural painting between 1964 and 1972... Heinrich Fuchs, Die österreichischen Maler des 20. Jahrhunderts, vol. IV