Ernst Fuchs

He was born in Vienna. He was the only child in an Orthodox Jewish family; was baptized – this fact of his biography saved the boy from the possible death in concentration camps and was of the utmost importance for his further art.

Learnt the basics of drawing, sculpture and painting from famous artist and restorer A. Schiemann. Later he attended lessons of professor Frohlich and sculptor E. Steinbock.

At the Vienna academy of arts, 15-year-old Fuchs became the youngest apprentice of legendary professor Albert Paris Gütersloh. The young man got introduced to paintings by Schiele and Klimt, who made considerable influence on him.

After his participation in the first post-war biennale in Venice (1947), in which the young artist participated with his Expressionist paintings and saw Dali’s painting “Gloomy game” that impressed him, Ernst Fuchs founded “The Vienna school of fantastic realism” together with Arik Brauer, Wolfgang Hatter, Rudolf Hausner and Anton Lehmden. Participated in the first exhibition of the Vienna Art club in Turin (Italy).

Having left his wife and two sons in Vienna, he settled in Paris, where he stayed 12 years. After many years of poverty, he achieved some international recognition and traveled to England, Spain (got acquainted with Dali) and Italy, lived in the USA for half a year.

Moved to Israel and lived in the abbey on the Mount Zion. Worked on his largest painting “The Last Supper” at the refectory of the Catholic Assumption Monastery during a year. Returning to Vienna in 1958, he founded Galerie Fuchs-Fischoff in order to promote and support the representatives of the Fantastic Realism.

After his triumphal return to Vienna, the artist with world famous name opened a gallery – the place of meeting the supporters of Fantastic Realism. He wrote the book “Architectura Caelestis” (was published in 1966), where he meticulously described his artistic conception, adding architectural projects, models and sketches. Having married a third time, he created furniture jewelry and wallpaper projects for Eva-Christina, who became his model, created sculptures.

Exhibitions of five Austrian artists of the school of Fantastic Realism were presented in Japan, Los Angeles, New York and Paris. Fuchs purchased the Villa of Otto Wagner in Hutteldorf, which was later reconstructed. He worked with bronze, granite and synthetic resin. In the following years, he developed set design for opera houses in Hamburg and was engaged in book illustration – a series of watercolor paintings Lohengrin.

Opened his private museum “Wagner’s Villa”. The artist lived in the south of France, worked on large painting cycles (“Dionysus” and others), created different architectural projects.

Started working at the Klagenfurt Apocalypse Chapel (Austria), where he created numerous oil paintings, covering the whole interior of this building. He took around 20 years to complete it.

The first exhibition of Ernst Fuchs was held in the Russian Museum of Saint Petersburg – that was the most complete retrospective exhibition in Russia by now. The artist illustrated Bible and conducted the exhibition tour “Religion and myth” in Europe.

An exhibition of Fuchs was held at The State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow, Russia), where the artist admitted that he “grew out of Myshkin”, implying Dostoevsky’s novel “The Idiot”. In the next year, his retrospective exhibitions were held at Palais Harrach (Vienna) and at the Westfries Museum of Hoorn (the Netherlands), his vernissage “Myth, fantasy, realism” was presented at the cities of Germany. In the 21th century, the artist actively organized his exhibitions, created monumental murals, was engaged in sculpture, literature, design. In 2010, he was awarded the Gold Medal of Honor for his services to the city of Vienna.

He died on November 9 at the age of 85 in Vienna.