Gretl Hanus, Mutter mit kind
Under the name of Franz Cisek, the Idbury Prints website has eight Viennese Expressionist linocuts and wood engravings dating from 1919-1922. But Cisek was not the artist; he was the teacher. A member of the Wiener Sezession, Cisek (Austrian, 1865-?) was hired by the artist Baron Felician Myrbach von Rheinfeld to teach at the Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule. There Cisek established a thriving youth class, and invented the linocut as a cheap and easy way of making relief prints. The extraordinarily accomplished works created in this class by young artists Ine Probst, Gretl Hanus, Auguste Richter, Willy Obransky, Alfred Schildee, and Hellmut Stanzel are testimony to a figure as important in the development of art education as Herbert Read, Marion Richardson, or Viktor Lowenfeld. So far as I know none of these young artists went on to a career in the fine arts.
Ine Probst, Wirthausgarten
The work of the students of Franz Cizek's "Juvenile Class" is indeed impressive and interesting. My interest in these "child artists" developed after I bought a linocut by Cizek student Gretl Hanus, entitled "Girl and Goat". A collection of prints by Cizek's students is held in the National Arts Education Archive, Bretton Hall, Leeds University. This collection comprises 104 works, which were given by Cizek to Francesca Wilson. In addition, the Vienna Museum holds the plates and copies of work by various Cizek pupils. Dr Rolf Laven of the Vienna Museum is currently working on the Cizek Collection, which comprises over 90,000 artworks from this famous art class. Dr Laven told me that Hanus was born 22.04.1904 in Fiume/Hungary and died 09 February 1993 in Vienna/Austria, and attended the class from 1913/14 until 1921/22.
ReplyDeleteThe work of the students of Franz Cizek's "Juvenile Class" is indeed impressive and interesting. My interest in these "child artists" developed after I bought a linocut by Cizek student Gretl Hanus, entitled "Girl and Goat". A collection of prints by Cizek's students is held in the National Arts Education Archive, Bretton Hall, Leeds University. The collection comprises 104 works, which were given by Cizek to Francesca Wilson. In addition, the Vienna Museum holds the plates and copies of work by various Cizek pupils. Dr Rolf Laven of the Vienna Museum is currently working on the Cizek Collection, which comprises over 90,000 artworks from this famous art class. Dr Laven told me that Hanus was born 22.04.1904 in Fiume/Hungary and died 09 February 1993 in Vienna/Austria, and attended the class from 1913/14 until 1921/22.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for this extra information, Eric - fascinating. It's particularly interesting to know the exact birth date for Gretl Hanus, as I was unclear how old the students really were. The Vienna Museum collection sounds like a really major archive; with any luck Dr Laven will give us a book on Cizek and his students.
ReplyDeleteI have five postcards from the Juvenile Class. Two by Bella Vichon aged 15, I believe she went on to a professional art career. One by Robert Ullman aged 12 who also had an art career as an adult. The remaining two are by Trantl Conrad aged 10 and 13. They are all untitled and show various scenes.
ReplyDeleteMy wife is a grandchild of Ine Probst. She is an artist since 30 years ago. The grandmother gave a lot of inspiration and creativity to her children and grandchildren.
ReplyDeleteHow exciting, Bengt, thank you so much for posting this. Ine Probst was very talented. Do you know years of birth and death for her?
ReplyDelete