Anton Lehmden

Biography

Anton Lehmden came to Vienna after the end of the war in the summer of 1945, was accepted at the Academy of Fine Arts in the same year and studied in the master classes of Robin Christian Andersen and Albert Paris Gütersloh until 1950. Together with Ernst Fuchs and Arik Brauer he worked in the legendary "Turm-Atelier" of the newly established class, which is considered the birthplace of the "Viennese School of Fantastic Realism". In 1948 he joined the avant-garde artists' association "Art Club" and actively participated in its numerous activities. Anton Lehmden had his first solo exhibition in Turin in 1949 and numerous further successes followed - he participated in the Venice Biennales (1950, 1954) and São Paulo (1953), and his works were later shown in Philadelphia, Amsterdam, Cairo, Los Angeles, New York, Montevideo and Tokyo. As early as 1956 Anton Lehmden was awarded the Austrian State Prize and shortly afterwards he was honored with a solo exhibition at the renowned Galerie Würthle. In 1971 Anton Lehmden was appointed professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and led a master class for painting until 1997. The artist also became widely known for the 360 m² monumental glass mosaic "The Becoming of Nature", which he designed for the U3 Volkstheater station opened in 1991. In 1999 Anton Lehmden, who was also the recipient of the Lovis Corinth Prize, became an honorary citizen of Deutschkreutz, where he also artistically redesigned the parish church; the artist died in Vienna in 2018 at the age of 90.