Josef Mikl

_{Vienna 1929 - 2008 Vienna}

Josef Mikl was born in Vienna in 1929. As of 1946, he attended the Education and Research Institute for Graphics and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts from 1948 to 1955. He was in the master’s class of Josef Dobrowsky. From 1951 on, he was a member of the International Art Club Section Austria, which disbanded in 1955. In 1956, Prachensky, Rainer, Hollegha and Mikl founded the group “Gallery St. Stephan”, which issued an exhibition for the first time the following year, in the Vienna Secession. Mikl presented his art at the 34th Biennale in Venice for Austria in 1968. In the following year, he took on a professorship for painting and from 1972 to 1997 he led the master’s class for nature studies (nude class) at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
From 1975 to 1976, he created a big mural in the chapel of the Bildungshaus St. Virgil in Salzburg. From 1983 to 1990, Mikl taught the class painting, nude drawing and sculpture at the Summer Academy in Salzburg almost every year. From 1994 to 1997, he created his biggest public commission, a great painting on the ceiling and twenty-two wall paintings for the large Redoute Hall in the Vienna Hofburg. Mikl is also a passionate drawer and designer of costumes and scenery, as well as church windows, such as in the Church of Peace in Hiroshima, Japan in 1960. His works were on display in national and international exhibitions, and the artist received much acclaim and honours. In 1990, he was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, in 2004 he received the Badge of Honour for Merits for the Republic of Austria, as well as the Ring of Honour of the City Vienna. Josef Mikl died in Vienna in 2008.