Ferdinand Stransky

_{Viehofen bei St. Pölten 1904 - 1981 Katzelsdorf}

Ferdinand Stransky was born in 1904 in Viehofen in Lower Austria. He joined the restoration workshop of the Viennese Academy in 1919. He was already deeply impressed by Oskar Kokoschka’s works during his studies under Serafin Maurer. Stransky undoubtedly deserves to be regarded as one of the outstanding Austrian “late expressionists”. He continued his training on an autodidactic basis after his years with the Academy and worked professionally as a restorer in the ’thirties. As a result of his friendship with the sculptor Georg Ehrlich, Stransky became a member of the Hagenbund where he exhibited successfully in 1936 and 1937. He was injured twice during the war and later became a member of the Secession and the artists’ group “Der Kreis”.
Stransky, who participated in the Biennales of São Paulo and Tokyo, was encouraged by reputable art historians such as Otto Benesch or Fritz Novotny and his paintings are to be found in numerous private and public collections.