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WOTRUBA. Heavenwards

The Church on the Georgenberg

Forty-five years after the consecration of the Church of the Most Holy Trinity on the Georgenberg in the district of Vienna Mauer – the so-called Wotruba Church – the Belvedere will for the first time present an exhibition specifically dedicated to this vital work. The church building, which at the time was highly controversial, was based on the design by Austrian sculptor Fritz Wotruba (1907–1975) and was built between 1974 and 1976 in collaboration with the architect Fritz Gerhard Mayr.


Curated by Gabriele Stöger-Spevak.

#FritzWotruba

In cooperation with
Impressions

The Artist

Fritz Wotruba in seinem Atelier bei der Arbeit an einem Tonmodell für das Projekt eines Karmelitinnenklosters in Steinbach bei Wien, später für die Kirche Zur Heiligsten Dreifaltigkeit auf dem Georgenberg, Wien-Mauer, 1967
Fritz Wotruba in his studio working on a clay model for the Carmelite convent project in Steinbach near Vienna, 1967
Belvedere, Vienna, estate of Fritz Wotruba

Fritz Wotruba (1907–1975) is considered one of the most significant European sculptors of classical modernism. As a critical voice, he became a key figure in the reconstruction of artistic and cultural life in Vienna in the post-war decades.

Figures composed of cuboids and tubular and cylindrical forms are a hallmark of Fritz Wotruba's oeuvre. He developed his concept of abstraction in the period after 1945 in dialogue with international modernity. Around 1960 he began to transform his work as he focused attention on set design. His design of three-dimensional stage elements, situated between figure and architecture, called for a new kind of spatial extensions and activation of individual cubic components. Wotruba expanded the figure into a living figuration, where ideas of figure, nature, landscape, and architecture merged. The variety of Fritz Wotruba's late works ranges from dynamic to strictly abstract architectural outcomes. On these principles and as a synthesis of his work, the sculptor created the design for the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Vienna's district of Mauer.

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The Church

 

 

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