Anton Kolig

Neutitschein 1886 - 1950 Nötsch

Anton Kolig came to Vienna at a young age, where he attended the School of Arts and Crafts from 1904 to 1906 under Anton von Kenner. Between 1907 to 1912, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts under Rudolf Bacher and Heinrich Lefler. His first exhibition was organized by the "Hagenbund" in 1911, where his art made such an impression on Carl Moll and Gustav Klimt, that the latter enabled a scholarship for a visit of Kolig to France. In 1911, Kolig married the sister of his friend Franz Wiegele in Nötsch, in Gailtal, where he lived henceforth. The central motive of Kolig’s work was almost exclusively the human being, especially the study of young, male nudes constitutes a great part of his work. In 1928, Kolig followed a vocation to teach at the Württemberg Art Academy, where he worked until 1943. In the winter of 1944, Kolig and his wife were buried alive after a bombing in Nötsch. Though being severely disabled afterwards, a new and last period of creative work began for Kolig, in which he painted with bright, glowing colours with utmost expressive power.