Josef Floch

Biography

Josef Floch was born in Vienna in 1894. Starting in 1913, he attended the Academy of Fine Arts, where he was taught initially by Rudolf Bacher and later by Franz Rumpler. Although Floch had been very successful in Vienna from an early age, his desire to leave his homeland grew with the years following World War I. In 1918 he traveled to Munich, where he first came into contact with paintings by Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Hans Marées - an experience that was not insignificant for his further creative work. Even though Josef Floch appreciated the great social and artistic recognition in his own country he decided to move to France in 1925. Several successful exhibitions followed at the famous Berthe Weill Gallery and in 1931 at the Crillon Gallery in Philadelphia. With the beginning of the Second World War, the entire life situation changed for the artist. Persecuted in Austria and forced to leave his adopted country France, he emigrated with his family to New York, where he had to rebuild his existence. Even though it was difficult to gain a foothold at first, the numerous awards Josef Floch received over time documented his recognition in America. In 1972, the Austrian Gallery in the Upper Belvedere hosted a highly acclaimed retrospective. Josef Floch died in New York in 1977.