Anton Velim

Biography

Anton Velim, was born in Vienna in 1892 as son of a Moravian dressmaker. From 1908 until 1912 he attended the industrial college and continued his studies at the academy of fine arts in Vienna with Alois Delug. His art has its roots in the Viennese Jugendstil, his designs for postcards of the Wiener Werkstätte are visual proof of this strong impact. At this early stage of his career Velim’s works have been shown at the Viennese Secession and the artist gained awards like the Gundel-prize in 1916, the l’Allemand prize in 1919 and the Prix de Rome in 1920. Famous patrons like the family Wittgenstein supported him. Anton Velim was member of the Grinzing artists’ colony founded by his teacher Alois Delug. The studios of the colony were at the so called „Maler-Akademie“ on Himmelstrasse in Grinzing, Vienna’s famous wine village. In 1927 Velim was granted the Austrian State Prize. This peak of his career was followed by a difficult period in his life. After the splitting-up of the colony the artist lost his studio, life became difficult in these pre-war years. In his art he absented himself stylistically from the art nouveau towards an socio-critical expressionism. The hard-edged depiction of the working class brought him the title „Egger-Lienz of the Proletarian“. In his private life Velim suffered several losses, his sun was killed in action during the Second World War and his wife split up with the artist. Although he never ceased to paint, it was not until the fities oft he 20th century that Velim lived up on the earlier success. His works were shown in a large retrospective at the Wiener Künstlerhaus and he was granted the Ehrenpreis of the City of Vienna in 1954. The same year Anton Velim died unexpectedly. His work, which sank undeservedly into oblivion, is now to be rediscovered in its significance by the subsequent generation. A large admirer of Velim’s art, the famous sculptur Anton Hanak, wrote in 1925: „Velim, the ingenious painter of the Grinzing artists’ colony! His works are always a great experience for me, during the last years I did not see paintings, which were as touching as his. Maybe it is not painting – it is something between painting and sculpture.“

The early work of the sitting women, more allegory than portait, is a wonderful example for the art nouveau period of Anton Velim. The beautiful young wife is bordered with flowers: a dandelion as symbol of a happy married life on the left side and a red poppy, symbol of passion, to her right. The pretentious position of the hands and the arrangement of the folds of her dress are reminiscent of the work of Egon Schiele; the chalky application of the light colour and the reduction of the palette is comparable with works by Ferdinand Hodler. More than sixty years after Anton Velim’s death it is about time to revalue his art and to ascribe the importance to it, which it deserves because of its outstanding quality.