Ernst Fuchs (1930-  ), Austrian

Mr. Fuchs was born in Vienna, on February 13, 1930. His father, a son of an orthodox Jewish family, had turned down a career as a Rabbi. Leaving his theological studies uncompleted. When the Nazis occupied Austria in March of 1938, his father immigrated to Shanghai. Ernst remained in Vienna with his mother while the Nazi controlled Austria. During this time, the Nazi legislation made it illegal for his mother to raise her son due to the fact that his father was Jewish. And therefore, Ernst was scheduled to be deported to a transit camp for children of mixed racial origin. However, his mother agreed to a formal divorce from her husband due to the fact that she is a Christian and therefore saving Ernst from the extermination camp. In 1942 Mr. Fuchs was baptized, an event of the utmost significance for him that determines his future life and work. He feels the vocation to become an artist and takes initial lessons in drawing, sculpting and painting with Alois Schiemann, a well-known painter and restorer. Subsequently he receives tuition from Professor Frohlich and the sculptress Emmy Steinbock. In 1945, Mr. Fuchs studied under the direction of Professor Albert Paris von Gutersloh at the Vienna Academy of Art. There he encounters the works of Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. In 1948, Mr. Fuchs founded "Vienna School of Fantastic Realism" together with other artist which the school participated in the first exhibition of the Vienna Art Club in Turin, Italy. In 1949, Mr. Fuchs settles in Paris where he remained for 12 years. During that time he experience many years of misery and poverty until in 1951/52 when he was met with great international recognition. In 1952, he traveled to England, Spain, and Italy, after which Mr. Fuchs traveled to United States until 1956. In 1956, Mr. Fuchs moved to Israel where he had lived in the Dormition Monastery on Mount Zion and painted Icons. He devoted all his energies to furthering Jewish-Christian understanding and worked as a church painter. Mr. Fuchs was commissioned to paint the Drei Mysterien des heiligen Rosenkranzes (Three Mysteries of the sacred Rosary) for a newly-built church in Vienna. His paintings cause a great storm of protest and some of his most vehement detractors demanded that the pictures be removed from the church. In 1962 Mr. Fuchs opened a gallery that became a center and meeting place for the idealism of Fantastic Realism, which is School of Thought. In 1966, he wrote a book titled, "Architectura Caelestis" in which he detailed his artistic concepts as well as architectural designs and sculptures. In 1970 Mr. Fuchs changed his medium from his paint brushes to working with new medium of bronze, granite, silver and synthetic resin. Between 1974-1978, Mr. Fuchs worked in cinema and stage, such as the state set designs for the Opera Houses in Hamburg Parsifal and Magic Flute, in Munich Lohengrin and in Vienna Tales of Hoffmann and Josephslegende. Simultaneously he worked on a series of water-color paintings Lohengrin. Between 1980-1988, there were International Exhibitions held on his works ending in Venice as a retrospective show.  In 1988, Mr. Fuchs opened to the public his own private museum which he purchased in 1973, the Otto Wagner villa in Vienna-Hutteldorf, which he subsequently renovated and completely restructured. The opening of the Ernst Fuchs Private Museum, on the occasion of the centenary of the "Villa Wagner".  In 1993, the first Ernst Fuchs exhibition show was held in Russia: the most comprehensive retrospective to date in the Russian Museum of St. Petersburg. Today, Mr. Fuchs lives and works in the south of France.