Adolf Frohner gemeinnützige Privatstiftung

The painter, graphic artist and sculptor Adolf Frohner (1934?2007) saw himself as a political artist. Together with Hermann Nitsch and Otto Mühl he was a co-founder of Viennese Actionism, although he was soon to disassociate himself from it. His unfinished junk sculptures, cruelly sensuous portrayals of women and dirty collages offer a brutal and aggressive reflection of reality.

The critic Dino Buzzati wrote of his participation in the 1970 Biennale in Venice: "I predict that Adolf Frohner?s women will become classics, like those of Modigliani, Casorati, van Dongen, Kisling and De Kooning ? This fine, stylistically exaggerated ambiguity is the key to understanding this beguiling artist.? This was Frohner?s introduction to the international stage. As an outstanding representative of post-war Austrian avant-garde, however, he also fulfilled an important function as a lecturer at the University of Applied Arts from 1972 to 2005.

The Frohner Foundation, which was founded in 2009, investigates and collates his oeuvre and makes it accessible in exhibitions. It possesses twenty-five major works from all of the artist?s creative periods and also manages his library and many hitherto unpublished photos, letters, poems and archive material from his estate.