Artists / Gallery
Fuchs Ernst
Vienna *1930 - †2015 Vienna
Ernst Fuchs saw himself as a universal genius (painter, graphic artist architect, musician). He is one of the founders of Vienna School of Fantastic Realism.
Ernst Fuchs was born in Vienna in 1930, from his father’s family he had Jewish ancestry. When his father emigrated to Shanghai in 1938 the boy stayed with his mother in Vienna and was baptized.
From 1946 to 1950 Fuchs studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under Albert Gütersloh and others. His first solo exhibition took place in Paris in 1949, where he moved in 1950 and concentrated on iconographic work, three of which form the altarpiece of the Rosenkranzkirche in Vienna-Hetzendorf. This was followed by trips to America, Italy, Spain and England until 1956. In 1957 he stayed for a longer period of time in the Dormitio Monastery on Mount Zion (Israel) and worked on iconographic painting. In 1962 he returned to Vienna, where he received a professorship.
In 1972 he acquired the Otto Wagner Villa, which he redesigned and transformed into a fantastic Fuchs Museum. Here a cross-section of Ernst Fuchs' work is presented. Around the museum he designed a sculpture park, which includes a unique fountain house with glass mosaics built by the artist.
His initially surrealistic, later mannerist works often display religious or mythological symbolism. According to the statements in his book "Architectura Caelestis" his motifs are based on visionary experience.
From 1988 on Fuchs lived and worked in Monaco.