Franz Hagenauer

Designed by: Franz Hagenauer, Vienna, 1977

Executed
by: Werkstätte
Hagenauer, model no. 1029

Marked: WHW in a circle, HAGENAUER WIEN

Nickel-plated
brass, excellent original condition

H 45 cm, W 26 cm, D 20 cm

Among the most impressive and best-known works by Professor Franz
Hagenauer are the depictions of human heads. These sculptures run through the
work of this important designer from the mid-1920s until the end in 1986. A
continuous development and change in his work is clearly recognisable. From the
initially visible parallels to contemporary works by Amedeo Modigliani or
Constantin Brancusi, Franz Hagenauer developed stylistically completely
independently from the mid-1930s at the latest. He always remained true to his
very personal style, which made him appear so unique among many contemporaries.

When he began working as a professor of free design at the Academy of
Fine Arts in Vienna, new impulses from his teaching spurred his artistic work.
At the end of the 1960s, his initially fully sculptural figural representations
gave way to designs of almost two-dimensional heads executed in a new
technique: A nickel-plated brass plate served as the base, onto which tubes and
other metal parts were soldered. By using only a few materials, very individual
art objects of reduced production and intense expression were created.

Sincere thanks to Dr Maria-Luise Jesch, Austrian Museum of Applied Arts
Vienna, Hagenauer archive, for her kind information.

Provenance:
private property, USA

Newly added cat. no. H21/87