Media information

Adolf Frohner (1934?2007)
The artist ADOLF FROHNER was born in Gross-Inzersdorf, Lower Austria, on 12 March 1934. In 1952, at the age of eighteen, he went to Vienna, where he worked in various professions until 1961. That year he attended lectures as a guest student at the Academy of Fine Arts. He was awarded a grant to live in Paris in 1961, became involved with the Nouveaux Réalistes and decided to become a freelance artist. After his return to Vienna in 1962 he was one of the originators of Viennese Actionism, together with Hermann Nitsch and Otto Mühl, with the "Blutorgel? action and manifesto. It was not long before he distanced himself from the Actionists, however, because he did not want to work in public. During a further visit to Paris he worked in the studio of Daniel Spoerri, the most important of the Nouveaux Réalistes. Apart from his art, he also worked as a commercial artist and art reviewer. Frohner?s works were shown in major galleries and museums throughout the world from the early 1960s, including the Biennale in Venice (1970) and the Künstlerhaus in Vienna (1993). He was appointed professor at the University of Applied Arts in 1972 and was elected dean in 1987 and prorector in 1989?91.

Frohner received numerous awards including the Austrian State Prize in 1972. After his first Actionist phase and the collages, he concentrated increasingly on painting and drawing. As a tribute to his work, the construction of the Forum Frohner in the former Stein Minorite Church in Krems of a new exhibition and event venue in the Krems museum district, planned and designed in close collaboration with the artist, was commenced while Frohner was still alive. It features Frohner?s own complete oeuvre as well as contemporary works by other Austrian and foreign artists. Frohner did not want a museum devoted to him but rather a platform for vibrant discussion ? not just for exhibitions but also for cultural, communal and social events. Tragically, the artist did not live to see the opening of Forum Frohner in September 2007, having died suddenly and completely unexpectedly on 24 January of that year. Frohner is regarded today as one of the most important and remarkable post-war Austrian painters.

Forum Frohner
FORUM FROHNER is in the refurbished Stein Minorite Church and has served since 2007 as an additional exhibition venue for Kunsthalle Krems. Its main focus is Frohner?s own creativity, which is set in relief by temporary exhibitions of other Austrian and international artists. It is a White Cube that meets all museum standards, providing a strong yet tasteful setting for artworks. It is a venue for individual and themed exhibitions of both young and established representatives of modern art while also providing an insight into Frohner?s oeuvre. Forum Frohner features both national and international projects accompanied by cultural events of all kinds. It is an open platform for fostering the kind of dialogue that Frohner would have wanted.

Frohner Foundation
The Adolf Frohner gemeinnützige Privatstiftung was launched in 2009 with the donation of twenty-five works from Frohner?s estate worth EUR 600,000. The board consists of Stefan Frohner, Hans Hammerschmied (commercial director), Joachim Rössl and Prof. Dieter Ronte (artistic director). The aim of the foundation is to investigate, collate and showcase the work of Adolf Frohner, a major representative of post-war Austrian avant-garde art. It focuses particularly on the processing of hitherto unpublished photographs, letters, poems and other archive material from Frohner?s estate so as to make them available for researchers.

Contact
Adolf Frohner gemeinnützige Privatstiftung
Musuemsplatz 5
A-3500 Krems
E-mail: office  [at]  frohner-stiftung  [dot]  at
www.frohner-stiftung.at