Rheo Martin Pedrazza

_{Lusern, Trentino 1924 - 2010 Stams, Tyrol}

Rheo Martin Pedrazza was born in Lusern, Trentino, in 1924. Initially, he studied at the Scuola Industriale in Trient and subsequently completed an apprenticeship with sculptor Rudolf Nicolussi in Bolzano. In 1942, his family moved to Hallein and in 1943 to Stams, Tyrol. Between 1943 and 1945, Pedrazza served in the military and was captured by the French. After the end of the war, he attended the Stately Industrial School in Innsbruck from 1946 to 1947 and studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts under Franz Elsner and Herbert Boeckl until 1950.
From 1951 to 1963, Pedrazza lived and worked as a freelance artist in Stams, where he founded the group “Stern” with Adriano Grasso-Caprioli and Günther Bauer. In 1964, Pedrazza moved to Vienna. In the Winter of 1981 to 1982, he declared his painterly oeuvre as finished and dedicated himself thenceforth to writing and philosophy.
In most of his big format works, Pedrazza follows the tradition of Expressionism. While still emphasizing graphic elements during his Tyrolean time, the paintings after his move to Vienna became more painterly. Pedrazza always kept the notion of a “New Humanism” and strictly refused abstract art. Rheo Martin Pedrazza died in Stams in 2010.