Herbert Boeckl

_{Klagenfurt 1894 - 1966 Wien}

After being rejected by the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna Herbert Boeckl studied architecture from 1912 until 1914 at the Technical University in Vienna. At the same time he received private tuition from Adolf Loos and became part of the latter’s circle of friends in 1913, which also included Karl Kraus, Arnold Schönberg and Oskar Kokoschka. After his military service (1914 – 1918) Boeckl devoted himself entirely to painting in 1919 and establish contact to the Nötscher circle. Upon the recommendation of Egon Schiele, he entered into a contract with the Viennese art dealer Gustav Nebehay in 1920 who financed study trips to Berlin, Paris and Palermo for the penniless father (1921–1924). At the end of the ’twenties Boeckl developed the artistic form of painterly coloristic expressionism that was to dominate his early period. He concentrated on family portraits, landscapes, nudes and still lifes.
At the beginning of the ’thirties Boeckl drew public attention with his religious representations and took on a professorship for painting at the Academy of Fine Art in Vienna in 1934. He withdrew from the implementation of the “Abendakt” (“evening nude”) in 1939 to avoid persecution as a “decadent artist” by the Nazis. In this position he taught almost all the representatives of Viennese Fantastic Realism and Actionism.
After 1945 Boeckl, went through a transformation that eventually led to the complete dissolution of the material in abstract colour planes. The serial works from 1948 onwards and the frescoes in the chapel at Seckau (1952-1961) dominate his late period. Because of his own artistic development and his position as leader of the “Abendakt“ Herbert Boeckl became a key figure in mid-twentieth century Austrian painting.