Josef Pillhofer

_{Vienna 1921 - 2010 Vienna}

Josef Pillhofer was born in Vienna in 1921. From 1938 to 1941 the sculptor attended the Kunstgewerbeschule in Graz. His studies from 1946 to 1953 under Fritz Wotruba at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna were decisive for his artistic development. In 1950 he was awarded the Staatspreis of the Academy and a yearlong scholarship at the workshop of Ossip Zadkine in Paris. During that time he came into contact with the sculptors Constantin Brancusi and Henri Laurens who also influenced his work. Stimulated by his Paris stay, Pillhofer applied himself to an in-depth study of cubistic formal principles. His occupation with Cubism accounts for the development of Pillhofer’s preference for geometric forms and the emergence of only a few basic forms. From 1970 to 1981 he lectured at the sculpture department of the Kunstgewerbeschule in Graz. Numerous exhibitions in museums and galleries, such as the Österreichische Galerie im Oberen Belvedere in Vienna in 1971 and the Rupertinum in Salzburg in 1984, showed comprehensive representations of his work.