Franz Sedlacek was an Austrian painter who belonged to the tradition known as "New Objectivity

New Objectivity

The New Objectivity is a term used to characterize the attitude of public life in Weimar Germany as well as the art, literature, music, and architecture created to adapt to it...

" ("neue Sachlichkeit"), an artistic movement similar to Magical Realism. At the end of the Second World War he "disappeared" as a soldier of the Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

 somewhere in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

.

Biography

Franz Sedlacek was born in Breslau on 21st January, 1891, and moved with his family to Linz

Linz

Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...

 in 1897. In 1909 he graduated from the Royal High School at the Fadingerstraße. A year later, he moved to Vienna and studied architecture and chemistry. After serving in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, he completed his studies and in 1921 began working at the Technical Museum of Vienna.

In 1923, Sedlacek married Maria Albrecht. The couple raised two daughters.

Work

In 1913, Sedlacek founded an artistic association in Linz with Anton Lutz, Klemens Brosch, Franz Bitzan, and Heinz Bitzan. Sedlacek began as a graphic artist, and later turned to oil painting.

In 1925 he produced a number of watercolours for Claire Annabel Caroline Grant Duff

Claire Annabel Caroline Grant Duff

Claire Annabel Caroline Grant Duff, , was a poet, writer and high society hostess. She was the eldest daughter of Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff and Anna Julia Webster. She was the author of A Victorian Childhood, which was published in 1932, under the pen name Annabel Jackson...

's Book The Unicorn.

In 1927, Sedlacek joined the Viennese Secession, an association of artists that was founded by Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects...

 and others in 1897.

A collection of his works is on exhibition at the Leopold Museum

Leopold Museum

The Leopold Museum, housed in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria, is home to one of the largest collections of modern Austrian art, featuring artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Richard Gerstl....

 in the Museumsquartier

Museumsquartier

The Museumsquartier is a 60,000 m² large area in the 7th district of the city of Vienna, Austria; it is the eighth largest cultural area in the world. The Museumsquartier contains Baroque buildings as well as Modern architecture by the architects Laurids and Manfred Ortner . The renovation of the...

 in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, including the 1931 painting, "Lied in der Dämmerung" ("Song in the Twilight").

External links

Entry with the Aeiou Encyclopedia

Aeiou Encyclopedia

AEIOU is a free online collection of reference works in both German and English about Austria-related topics.-Background:...