Oswald Oberhuber

Biography

Oswald Oberhuber was born in 1931 in Merano in South Tyrol. In 1945 he came to Innsbruck to study sculpture at the Bundesgewerbeschule (Federal Trade School). In 1949 he moved to the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna to attend Fritz Wotruba's class and, for some time, to Willi Baumeister in Stuttgart. The Stuttgart Academy later made him an honorary member and senator. In the mid-1960s, Oberhuber was artistic advisor to the Galerie nächst St. Stephan, which he took over from Otto Mauer in 1973 and headed until 1978. As professor at the University of Applied Arts, he shaped entire generations of artists from 1973 to 1998. In the years 1979 to 1987 and 1991 to 1995 he was rector of the university. As an artist he represented Austria at the 1972 Venice Biennale and participated in documenta 6 in 1977 and documenta 7 in Kassel in 1982. His work has been honoured with numerous prizes and awards. Oberhuber is regarded as a co-founder of informal painting and sculpture in Austria. He defends the incessant change in art and rejects any style formation. He is thus one of the most difficult to classify due to the constant changes in his art and one of the most versatile personalities in the Austrian cultural landscape, in which he played a decisive role with his activities as an artist, gallery owner, exhibition initiator, author, professor and rector.