Anton Mahringer

Biography

Anton Mahringer was born in Neuhausen near Stuttgart in 1902. The family moved to Schwäbisch Gmünd in 1904. He began his professional career at the Stuttgart customs office in 1921. After a knee injury, which resulted in a stiff leg, he switched to a bank apprenticeship, which he completed in 1924. In the same year, he was admitted to the Stuttgart School of Arts and Crafts and transferred to the local academy a year later. In 1926, Mahringer came into contact with Expressionist works at the International Art Exhibition in Dresden, which made a lasting impression on him. In 1927, he was able to finance a trip to Italy with prize money and also came to Vienna for the first time. In 1928, he switched from the drawing class to the painting class of Anton Kolig, who had been appointed professor at the Stuttgart Academy that year. In the summer, the artist came to Nötsch in the Gailtal valley for the first time at Kolig's invitation. Mahringer also met Franz Wiegele there and began to paint his first landscapes as a result of his intense experience of nature. In 1929, the artist took over the management of a second Kolig class in Stuttgart and worked with him on the fresco cycle in the Landhaus in Klagenfurt. In 1931, Anton Mahringer moved to the Gailtal valley near Nötsch. This was followed by his first exhibitions, the purchase of a work by the Albertina and further travels. After the war, which the artist had survived well as a drawing teacher in Hermagor, he was able to build on the successes of the interwar period, now well connected - his circle of acquaintances included Friedrich Welz, Otto Demus and Bruno Grimschitz - as evidenced by numerous exhibitions, including abroad, and commissioned works. The artist died in Villach in 1974. In 2002, a highly acclaimed retrospective was held at the Österreichische Galerie im Belvedere to mark his 100th birthday.
Alongside Anton Kolig, Franz Wiegele and Sebastian Isepp, Anton Mahringer is one of the most important artists of the Nötsch circle. In his landscape paintings in particular, he set new impulses that were important for Austrian art and took him to the limits of abstraction. He is therefore one of the most influential and important Austrian artists of the 20th century. His works can be found in major museums such as the Belvedere, the Albertina, the Wien Museum, the Rupertinum in Salzburg and the Landesgalerie Klagenfurt.