Maria Biljan-Bilger (1912–1997) was an Austrian ceramist, sculptor and textile artist. A prominent female artist in the male-dominated post-war period, she is remembered as a co-founder of the Vienna Art Club in 1947 and as a professor of ceramics at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (1978–92). In the 1950s, she was successful in receiving a number of commissions from the city of Vienna for art works and memorials in public spaces. Inspired by the folk culture of southern and eastern Europe, her works were exhibited at the Venice and São Paulo biennials. [1] [2] [3]
Born on 21 January 1912 in Radstadt, Maria Biljan-Bilger was raised in Graz where her father Daniel Biljan (1872–1942) was a master over maker. From 1927 to 1931 she attended the Arts and Crafts School (Kunstgewerbeschule) in Graz where she studied ceramics under Hans Adametz. [2] [3] In 1933 she married the chemist Ferdinand Bilger, the cousin of her fellow ceramics student Goldy Parin-Matthèy. [1] They had no children and the marriage was dissolved in 1947. [3]
After the German annexation of Austria, she moved to Vienna where she created colorfully decorated sandstone works in her workshop [3] and took up employment with the ceramics firm B. Erndt in Pöchlarn, Lower Austria. [2]
In 1947, in a male-dominated community she stood out as a co-founder of the Austrian Art Club. [2] As a result, she was able to present her works in several international exhibitions. [3] In the 1950s, she was successful in receiving a number of commissions from the city of Vienna for art works and memorials in public spaces. Inspired by the folk culture of southern and eastern Europe, her works were exhibited at the Venice and São Paulo biennials. From 1961, in collaboration with Karl Prantl, she helped to arrange the International Sculpture Symposium at Sankt Margarethen im Burgenland, [2] [3] taking over its management from 1970 to 1987. [4] During this period, she worked on her large stone sculptures. [2] [5]
In 1978, Biljan.Bilger was appointed professor of ceramics at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Vienna, where she served until her retirement in 1982. [5]
Maria Biljan-Bilger died in Munich, Germany, on 1 May 1997. [1]
Mohsen Vaziri Moghaddam, was an Iranian-born painter, sculptor, and a professor of art. He was most notable for his style of abstract expressionism, and was once referred to as the "pioneer of modern Iranian abstraction."
Elke Silvia Krystufek is an Austrian conceptual artist who lives and works in Berlin, Germany, and Vienna, Austria. She works in a variety of media including painting, sculpture, video and performance art.
Maria Lassnig was an Austrian artist known for her painted self-portraits and her theory of "body awareness". She was the first female artist to win the Grand Austrian State Prize in 1988 and was awarded the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art in 2005. Lassnig lived and taught in Vienna from 1980 until her death.
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Art-Club was an association of artists during the postwar period in Vienna, Austria, in 1946–1959.
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Franz Josef Weissmann was a Brazilian sculptor born in Austria, emigrating to Brazil while he was eleven years old. Geometric shapes, like cubes and squares, are strongly featured in his works. He was one of the founders of the Neo-Concrete Movement.
Maria Baumgartner is an Austrian studio potter and was professor of ceramics at the University of Arts and Industrial Design Linz.
Kris Lemsalu is a contemporary artist based in Tallinn, Estonia and Vienna, Austria. She studied art at the Estonian Academy of Arts, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Eccentric with color and material, she uses props, costumes, and other natural materials to portray her artwork. In these installations, Lemsalu sculpts an installation that "gives birth to a world of shamanic force, visionary weirdness, and collective revival." By playing with traditions, Lemsalu blurs the origin and scenically removes their dogma. She avoids "concrete labeling, simultaneously showing us the absurdity of as well as the effectiveness of rituals. From this collective transformative euphoria emerges a belief in the possibility of human redemption." "A punk pagan trickster feminist sci-fi shaman, Kris Lemsalu gathers together both collected and crafted objects into totemic sculptures and hallucinatory environments, animated with performances by the artist and her coterie of collaborators;" her work being shown in many places, including Berlin, Copenhagen and Tokyo. In 2015, she participated in Frieze Art Fair New York, where her work Whole Alone 2 was selected among of five best exhibits by the Frieze New York jury.
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