Fritz Schwarz-Waldegg - vendere e comprare opere

1 March 1889, Vienna (Austria) - 4 September 1942, Maly Trostinez (Ukraine)

The painter Fritz Schwarz-Waldegg is one of the most celebrated representatives of the Expressionist movement in Austria.

Born in Vienna in 1889 to Jewish parents, his artistic talent was already being fostered from early childhood onwards. He first received instruction from David Kohn at a private art school, after which he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts to study under Christian Griepenkerl and Rudolf Bacher. At that time, his circle of acquaintances included famous rising artists like Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka. His voluntary service in the First World War left such a lasting impression on him that, from this moment on, his work concentrated primarily on an expressionist painting manner incorporating cubist elements. Schwarz-Waldegg specialised in portraits, depictions of landscapes and figural scenes. In 1919 Schwarz-Waldegg joined the ‘Hagenbund’ group of artists, and became their president between 1925 and 1926. In the course of his study trips he visited a number of places in Austria and abroad, such as Paris, Berlin and Copenhagen. 1938 marked a dramatic turning point in the life of the artist. Up to this point in time he had been firmly established in Austria’s artistic world and cultural life, with internationally recognised exhibitions. With the Anschluss, not only was the Hagenbund dissolved (despite his conversion to the Christian faith) but the National Socialist regime also banned him from working professionally, placing him under intense pressure. Within the same year, Schwarz-Waldegg was forced to abandon his studio since orders for his work had declined drastically. His sister’s apartment became his home until 1942, when he was sent to a concentration camp. Subsequently he was transferred to the extermination camp at Maly Trostinez near Minsk, where he was murdered shortly afterwards.

After the end of the war his work was largely forgotten. Then, in 2009-10, the Jewish Museum in Vienna became the first to dedicate a major retrospective to the painter, entitled ‘Fritz Schwarz-Waldegg: a painter’s journey through the ego and the world’. Only a few of his works have been preserved, some of which can be found in the collections of the Belvedere Museum and Albertina in Vienna.