Helmuth Gräff Explained

Helmuth Gräff
Birth Place:Gars am Kamp, Austria
Nationality:Austrian
Field:Painter, drawer and poet
Movement:Expressionism
Works:religious paintings, landscape paintings
Awards:1st prize "Freunde der Akademie" (1983)
Website:Helmuth Gräff official website

Helmuth Gräff (born 12 April 1958 in Gars am Kamp) is an Austrian painter, drawer and poet. Gräffs painterly style is rooted on the one hand in the artistic heritage of Vincent van Gogh,[1] and on the other hand he can also be regarded as a precursor or heritage of the Neuen Wilde.[2]

Life

Helmuth Gräff is the youngest son of Rudolf Gräff (1919-2006), SPÖ local politician and lay judge, and Leopoldine Gräff (1923-2023; née Kimmerl) from Vienna-Schwechat, who belongs to the family of former imperial judge Matthias Kimmerl of Kaiserebersdorf (1818–1883),[3] after whom Vienna's Kimmerlgasse is named.[4] His paternal ancestors were politically active and religious free thinkers with their own family coat of arms (related to the dutch (De) Graeff family), and it is said that they are of old noble origin of the Carniolan area.[3] Gräff was married first to Martina Maria Gach, daughter of the architect Richard Gach.[3] His only son Matthias Laurenz Gräff works as an academic painter and political activist and in 2013 he became chairman of the worldwide Family Association Gräff-Graeff (Familienverband Gräff-Graeff e.V.).[5]

In his youth Helmuth Gräff had been drawing thousands of artworks and kept on practising until the age of 20 where he began to study at the Wiener Kunstschule by Fritz Martinz.[6] Between 1979 and 1983 he studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna of Gustav Hessings and later Friedensreich Hundertwassers masterclass of painting.[7] Since 1989 is Gräff self-employed as an academic painter, drawer and poet. The themes of his artworks are on the one hand compositions with spiritual and religious contents, and on the other hand works in the nature (Italy, France, Florida, Bali).[3]

As a result of a sports accident and the fracture of three thoracic vertebrae in 1995, Helmuth Gräff suffered from persistent back pain, which increasingly impaired his artistic work. According to Gräff's own account on his website, in 2018 he attempted suicide with a 30-fold overdose of insulin, which resulted in a stroke. He did this because of his art collector's withdrawal of a "Richard Wagner Life Cycle" comprising several hundred drawings and oil paintings.[8]

Gräff exhibited among others in the Palais Palffy,[9] [10] Palais Todesco[11] and Museum of Young Art[12] as well in the Leopold Museum Vienna.[2] His artworks were auctionated at Dorotheum[13] and Auktionshaus Im Kinsky.[14]

Collections

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions:

Group Exhibitions:

Literature

External links

Notes and References

  1. Helmuth Gräff, Akt - Landschaft - Allegorie. Edition M wie Kunst in der Bibliothek der Provinz. Verlag für Literatur, Kunst und Musikalien, 2005, S. 23
  2. Web site: THE EXCITEMENT CONTINUES Zeitgenössische Kunst aus der Sammlung Leopold II . 2015-07-11 . 2015-07-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150703031631/http://www.gruenfelder.at/files/content/The%20excitiment%20continues.pdf . dead .
  3. https://austria-forum.org/af/AustriaWiki/Helmuth_Gr%C3%A4ff Helmuth Gräff at austria-forum
  4. https://www.geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at/Matthias_Kimmerl Matthias Kimmerl at www.geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at
  5. Web site: Familienverband Gräff-Graeff e. V.. Familienverband Gräff - Graeff, Historie-Gegenwart-Zukunft e. V.. 2019-11-03. https://web.archive.org/web/20190617062833/https://www.familienverbandgraeff.at/. 2019-06-17. live.
  6. http://www.basis-wien.at/db/person/121955;jsessionid=8F768ED062E7DD23C33668FCC3E82C3E Helmuth Gräff at Basis Wien
  7. http://archiv.belvedere.at/kuenstler/1389/gr%E4ff_helmut+%28helmuth%29 CV at the "Österreichische Galerie Belvedere"
  8. http://www.graeff.co.at/index.htm Personal statement from Helmuth Gräff, 2019 (under "Aktuelles")
  9. https://www.noen.at/horn/emsprudelnder-maler-em-4318662 Newspaper article NÖN
  10. http://archiv.belvedere.at/kuenstler/1389/gräff_helmut+%28helmuth%29 CV at the "Österreichische Galerie Belvedere"
  11. https://www.leadersnet.at/news/21785,pensionssystem-ein-schrecken-ohne-ende.html Pensionssystem, ein Schrecken ohne Ende (ger)
  12. http://www.graeff.co.at/bisherige_ausstellungen-r.htm www.graeff.co.at
  13. https://www.dorotheum.com/de/k/helmut-graeff/ Helmuth Gräff at Dorotheum
  14. https://imkinsky.com/de/kuenstler/78103-helmuth-graeff Helmuth Gräff at Auktionahaus Im Kinsky
  15. http://www.kleinezeitung.at/steiermark/judenburg/events.do?action=showEvent_Detail&id=251636 Newspaper article: Kleine Zeitung. Helmuth Gräff, "Metamorphosen" - Ölgemälde und Zeichnungen (Oct 2010) (german)
  16. http://daskunstmuseum.at/museum/galeriekunstmuseum Das Kunstmuseum Waldviertel (ger)
  17. http://www.noen.at/nachrichten/lokales/aktuell/horn/Graeff-Graeff-im-Vergleich;art2640,616473 Newspaper article: NÖN, "Gräff & Gräff im Vergleich" (german)
  18. http://www.leopoldmuseum.org/media/file/64_EC_Pressetext_deutsch_screen.pdf Pressetext aus dem Leopold Museum. "THE EXCITEMENT CONTINUES. Zeitgenössische Kunst aus der Sammlung Leopold II"

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