Wolfgang Hollegha

Biography

Wolfgang Hollegha was born in Klagenfurt in 1929. From 1947 to 1954, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under Josef Dobrowsky and Herbert Boeckl. During this period he created his first abstract paintings based on machine motifs. In 1950, he met Arnulf Rainer, and together with Markus Prachensky, Anton Lehmden and Ernst Fuchs they founded the “Hundsgruppe” (“Dog Group”). In 1952 he exhibited his works at the Art Club. They were mostly nature studies, which served as a basis for complex abstractions of circles and curves. In 1955 he met Monsignor Otto Mauer, and had the chance to exhibit his works in Mauer’s St. Stephan Gallery for the first time. He shared a studio in Lichtensteinstrasse in Vienna with Markus Prachensky, where he gradually discovered his characteristic “paint spot” style. The next year, Hollegha founded the “St. Stephan Group” with Josef Mikl, Markus Prachensky, and Arnulf Rainer. In 1957 he was awarded the Guggenheim Prize, and one year later he presented his large-format oil painting at the “Pittsburg International 1958” art exhibition. In 1960, through the agency of art critic Clement Greenberg, Wolfgang Hollegha participated in a group exhibition in the New York gallery French & Co along with Kenneth Noland, Barnett Newman, David Smith and others. That same year, he went to New York and met the artists personally. His work was recognized with the prestigious Carnegie Prize, which paved the way for an international career and raised expectations of a move to New York. Instead, in 1961 he bought a farm in Rechberg near Frohleiten in Styria and built himself a 14-meter-high wooden studio of his own design, where he lives and works to this day. In 1964, Hollegha took part in documenta III art exhibition in Kassel. From 1972 to 1997, he held a professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts, which allowed him to influence succeeding generations of artists. Wolfgang Hollegha, along with Arnulf Rainer, Josef Mikl and Markus Prachensky, is one of the first representatives of abstract painting in Austria. He lives and works in Styria and Northern Spain.