Kurt Moldovan - Buy or sell works

22 June 1918, Vienna (Austria) - 16 September 1977, Vienna (Austria)

Kurt Moldovan was an Austrian illustrator, painter and author. He is considered one of the most significant visual artists that his country has ever produced.

Kurt Moldovan worked as a fine mechanic and waiter before embarking on his artistic career. He studied at the Vienna Arts and Crafts School from 1937-1940, before being enlisted. He enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1945, where he studied under Sergius Pauser and Herbert Boeckl. He was awarded a major exhibition in the Vienna Concert Hall just one year later. In 1947, he took part in the founding assembly of the Art Club. Even as a young artist, he maintained close contact with his peers, also undertaking numerous educational and inspirational journeys. His contacts included significant creative minds like Ernst Fuchs, Ingeborg Bachmann and Friedensreich Hundertwasser. He also went on longer study trips to France, England, Italy, Spain, the United States, Mexico and Morocco. In 1954, he completed his diploma under Franz Herberth at the University of Applied Art, Vienna.

Kurt Moldovan’s oeuvre was extremely diverse. His series’ of illustrations [including Fin de Siècle (1950), Zodiac (1956) or Danse macabre (1957)] were particularly famous, as were his 25 India ink drawings for the international Student Hall Residence in Vienna. Newspapers frequently published his essays, short stories and caricatures. He illustrated numerous books and worked as an art critic and stage designer. He authored the collection of stories Vom Umgang mit Drachen with his close friend Paul Flora in 1958, for which Moldovan produced the texts and Flora the illustrations. The duo penned other books in the following years, although Moldovan also pursued a career as an author in his own right, frequently using the nom de plume Lenus Moll. He was involved in theatre as more than just a stage designer, writing the libretto Love for the ballet Seasons in 1960. He was commissioned by the City of Vienna to produce a terracotta decoration for a forty-metre wall in the municipal building on Hartlebengasse in 1963, which he entitled Technical Slogans. His designs for mosaic tables and collaboration on the ORF animated version of Alice in Wonderland (1971) are also noteworthy.

He was buried in a grave of honour in the Central Cemetery in Vienna after his sudden death in 1977. His companion Paul Flora gave the eulogy.

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