Home Artcollection » Artists » Kurt Absolon
Following his military service, during which he suffered multiple wounds, Kurt Absolon (Vienna 1925-1958 Wulkaprodersdorf) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with Robin Christian Andersen and simultaneously attended the lectures Abendakt of Herbert Boeckl and a course on mural painting with Albert Paris Gütersloh. From 1950 Absolon was a member of the informal Gruppe 50, which resulted in his graphic works being strongly influenced by literary stimuli and the illustration of texts by contemporary writers. A sensitive observer and highly accomplished graphic artist, Absolon created landscape drawings, portraits, and works based on religious and literary models. In public space, a sgrafitto on the facade of the house Troststraße 18, stained glass windows in the parish Neuerdberg Don Bosco and a plaster cut on the organ loft in the parish Maria Lourdes, all in Vienna, remind of the artist. Kurt Absolon was awarded, among others, the Theodor Körner Prize and the prize of the 3rd Austrian Graphic Competition. In 1958 the artist succumbed to serious injuries as a result of a car accident. About a decade later, the Albertina in Vienna showed a first major retrospective of some 185 drawings and prints. The STRABAG Artcollection includes works by Absolon from the 1950s. In 2020, the first comprehensive catalog raisonné of Kurt Absolon's work was presented.
