---
type: page
title: Biografien / Biographies
language: en
url: "https://www.belvedere.at/en/biographies-pichler-kiesler-leimer"
---

# Biografien / Biographies

## Frederick Kiesler 

**1890**  
Frederick Kiesler is born on September 22 in Chernivtsi (Ukraine, then part of Austria-Hungary).

**1908–09**  
Studies architecture at the College of Building, part of the Imperial and Royal Polytechnic Institute, in Vienna.

**1910–13**  
Studies painting and engraving at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

**1914**  
Is drafted for military service following the outbreak of World War I.

**1924**  
Serves as artistic director of the *International Exhibition of New Theater Technology* in conjunction with the *Music and Theater Festival of the City of Vienna. Develops the L- + T-System* and the *Raumbühne* (space stage).

**1925**  
Designs the theater section of the Austrian contribution to the *Exposition* *internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes* in Paris. Further develops the *L- + T-System* to create the *City in Space*.

**1926**  
Moves to New York.

**1929**  
Opening of the *Film Guild Cinema* with a changeable projection screen (*Screen-o-scope*), New York.

**1935–36**  
Designs an apartment for the Mergentimes in New York, complete with furniture including the *Nesting Table*.

**1937**  
Founds the Laboratory for Design Correlation at Columbia University, New York.

**1942**  
Designs Peggy Guggenheim’s gallery-museum *Art of This Century*, New York.

**1947**  
Designs the *Salle de superstition* for the *Exposition internationale du surréalisme*, Paris. Creates his first autonomous, sculptural works of art, including *Totem for All Religions*.

**1949**  
Publishes “Manifeste du Corréalisme.”

**1950**  
Presents the first model of an *Endless House* at the Kootz Gallery, New York.

**1952**  
Presents the *Galaxy for Nelson Rockefeller* and the painted, nineteen-part *Galaxy* in the exhibition *15 Americans* at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

**1957**  
Founds the architectural firm Kiesler and Bartos Architects (dissolved in 1962).

**1958**  
Receives the commission to construct the *Endless House* as a full-scale model in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art, New York (unbuilt).

**1960**  
Presents the large model for an *Endless House* in the exhibition *Visionary Architecture* at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

**1961**  
Begins work on the group of *Landscape Sculptures*, including *The Marriage of Heaven and Earth* 1961–62/1964 and *The Saviour Has Risen*, 1964.

**1962**  
Begins design of a *Grotto for Meditation* for the New Harmony Community, Indiana (unbuilt).

**1963**  
Walter Pichler visits Kiesler.

**1965**  
Opening of the *Shrine of the Book* in Jerusalem.  
Frederick Kiesler dies on December 27 in New York.

## Walter Pichler 

**1936**  
Walter Pichler is born on October 1 in Deutschnofen / Nova Ponente, Italy.

**1952–55**  
Attends the Bundesgewerbeschule in Innsbruck for training in decorative and lettering painting.

**1955–59**  
Studies graphic design at what is now the University of Applied Arts Vienna.

**1960**  
Creates his first sculptural works, including *Alte Figur* (1960–63).

**1962**  
Meets Hans Hollein at the Galerie St. Stephan in Vienna. Both share an interest in antifunctionalist architectural concepts.

**1963**  
The exhibition *Hans Hollein—Walter Pichler: Architektur; Work in Progress* is held at the Galerie St. Stephan. The Museum of Modern Art in New York acquires some of the drawings presented.  
Stays from May to November in New York, where he meets Frederick Kiesler.

**1965**  
Begins to collaborate as an editor and designer for the architectural journal *Bau: Schrift für Architektur und Städtebau*.

**1966**  
Works as a member of the editorial board of the magazine *Bau* (until mid-1967).  
The *Galaxy 1* armchair is commissioned by the company R. Svoboda & Co. Creates the first prototypes, including *Großer Raum (Prototyp 3)*.

**1968**  
Participates in *documenta 4*, Kassel.  
Presentation of the *Galaxy 1* at the first UN space conference *UNISPACE I*, Vienna.

**1970**  
Creates the *Sitzgruben* in Breitenbrunn, Burgenland, and *Tragbarer Schrein*.

**1971**  
First comprehensive solo exhibition at the Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts in Vienna. Partitioning of the ground floor with textile walls.

**1972**  
Purchases a farm in St. Martin an der Raab, southern Burgenland. In the following decades, carries out numerous conversions and extensions for his own sculptures.

**1977**  
Participates in *documenta 6*, Kassel.

**1982**  
Austrian Pavilion at the *40th Venice Biennale*.

**1990**  
The permanent work *Tor zum Garten* is created for MAK—Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna.

**1993**  
Construction of the *Halle in Syros*, Greece.

**1994**  
Start of the construction projects *Haus neben der Schmiede* (completed in 2002) and *Plattform über dem Bach* (completed posthumously in 2014) in Eggental / Val d’Ega, Alto Adige, Italy.

**1996**  
Construction begins on the *Passage*, Aldrans near Innsbruck (completed in 2011).

**1998**  
Exhibition *Pichler: Prototypen 1966–69*, Generali Foundation, Vienna.

**2001**  
Exhibition *Walter Pichler: Drawings, Sculptures, Architecture*, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York.

**2011**  
Exhibition *Walter Pichler: Skulpturen Modelle Zeichnungen*, MAK—Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna.

**2012**  
Walter Pichler dies in Vienna on July 16.

## Sonia Leimer 

**Sonia Leimer**

Born 1977 in Merano, Italy. Lives and works in Vienna.

**Education**

1996–2000  
Studied architecture at the TU Wien, Vienna

2001–04  
Studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

**Teaching**

2012–16  
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

2017–18  
“Installation and Architecture,” Department of Architecture and Art, ETH Zurich

2019  
Project collaboration with Alessandra Cianchetta, The Cooper Union—The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, New York

**Awards** (Selection)

2011  
Art Cologne Award for New Positions, Cologne  
Paul-Flora-Preis, Bolzano, Italy

2017  
Quivid First Prize, Art in Public Space, Munich

2018  
Fourth edition of the Italian Council, Directorate-General for Contemporary Art and Architecture and Urban Peripheries, Rome

**Solo Exhibitions** (Selection)

2024  
*Sonia Leimer*, The Cosmic House, Jencks Foundation, London  
*Space Dust*, Heldenplatz, Vienna

2023  
*Platzhalter*, MuseumsQuartier Wien, Vienna

2022  
*Eroberung des Nutzlosen*, Neuer Kunstverein Wien, Vienna

2021  
*Via San Gennaro*, MAN\_Museo d’Arte Provincia di Nuoro, Italy

2020  
*Space Junk*, Museion, Bolzano, Italy

2017  
*Autoterritorium*, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck

2014  
*Wow!*, Los Angeles Museum of Art, Los Angeles

2012  
*Along those lines*, Museion, Bolzano, Italy

2011  
*uns so weiter*, Kunstverein basis, Frankfurt on the Main

2010  
*Neither in Motion nor at Rest*, BAWAG Contemporary, Vienna  
*No Site to Fall in*, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg

**Group Exhibitions** (Selection)

2024  
*Genossin Sonne*, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna

2023  
*Landscapes of Desire*, 4th Industrial Art Biennial, Labin, Raša, Pula, and Rijeka, Croatia

2022  
LIAF 2022, Lofoten International Art Festival, Svolvær, Norway  
*Faking the Real: The Art of Enticement*, Kunsthaus Graz, Austria

2021  
*How will we live together?*, Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice  
*PLANET LOVE: Climate Care in the Digital Age*, Vienna Biennale for Change 2021, MAK—Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna

2020  
*Artissima Unplugged*, GAM—Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin

2019  
*Ticket to the Moon*, Kunsthalle Krems, Austria  
*Fly me to the Moon*, Kunsthaus Zürich and Museum der Moderne Salzburg