(Hall, Tyrol, 1910–2001 Vienna)
“Entwurf für das Glasfenster im Verwaltungsgeb. der Röhrenwerke Hall T.”, titled, signed, dated Weiler 48, egg tempera, pencil on paper, on canvas, 88 x 60 cm, stretched on a wooden frame

Provenance:
Collection Guido Holzmeister (1914-2015, son of Clemens Holzmeister), Tyrol
His heirs

Compare:
Max Weiler, Die großen Werke, Innsbruck 2010, cat. no. 8

Guido Holzmeister
On the construction of Tiroler Röhren- und Metallwerke in Hall
Extract from a conversation with the architecture journalist Arno Ritter on 2 July 1998 in Holzmeister’s “Berghaus” on the Hahnenkamm near Kitzbühel

... Arno Ritter: And you also said back then that your father planned, with the young Weiler...

Guido Holzmeister: Yes, yes, my father always said that when he made architectural designs, he didn’t want to forget the painters and sculptors, and when he planned the office building, I saw that on the small street-facing façade he had planned a five-metre high and two-metre wide window for the stairwell. And so, my father, when he then came to Austria, that was in 1948 or 1949, I think, in any case, when he came up here for the first time, he became friends with the painter Max Weiler, who had already become well-known with his paintings in the Hungerburg Church, and my father said: Weiler, you will make me a stained-glass window for this. And that’s how my acquaintance with Weiler came about. Weiler and I are the same age, and we became friends. And Weiler asked me at the time: well, how do you envisage it then? I replied, well, something very simple. The Nordkette, spring tapping, I thought of my grandfather (Bridarolli), the water drainage, the use of water and drainage. That was the domain of the Tiroler Röhren- und Metallwerke. Weiler created a design for the stained-glass window, where one can see how the water is collected high up, then drained, turbines or something, but represented symbolically, of course, and the drainage. I still have this design in my possession. It was presented to the commissioners. However, the office building was only finished when I went away, around 1952. That was the last thing we built, the office building. And then I told my successor as technical director that I would like to make a condition. My father had left a statement here, instructing that Max Weiler should execute this stained-glass window. My successor said, yes, but we don’t have any money now, we’ll do that later, we’ll put in ordinary glass for the time being. That’s how it’s stayed to this day. (laughs) That’s how it goes when no one is there, you see, Mr Ritter. If my father had been there, he would have certainly pushed it through.
From: Georg Rigele and Georg Loewit, Clemens Holzmeister, Haymon Verlag, Innsbruck 2000