KIENMAYER, FRANZ (1886-1963)

“Dookia, Java” (1929)
Oil on canvas laid on board
52.5 x 38cm
Signed lower left
*private collection, Sydney
 
Kienmayer was a respected Austrian Modernist & Portraitist. He was born in Vienna, where his parents wanted him to become a Catholic priest. After two years of training for the priesthood, Kienmayer left for Leipzig to stay with an uncle who was a well-known artist & newspaper illustrator. Kienmayer worked in a village store as a clerk, drew portraits on the side, & built up a good reputation as an artist. In 1906, he enrolled at the Academy Of Fine Arts in Vienna. He was admitted to the school that year, the same year as iconic Czech Modernist, Egon Schiele (Adolf Hitler's application to study there was rejected in 1907 & 1908). After completing his training, Kienmayer travelled in Italy, Spain, Morocco, Egypt, & Palestine. He then returned to Germany & joined the Leipziger Illustrierte Zeitung as a staff artist. In 1926, Kienmayer was appointed a professor at the Art Academy in Vienna. The same year he travelled to the Far-East where he remained for about six years. Kienmayer visited China, Japan, Singapore, Malaya, & many of the islands of the Indonesian archipelago during his travels and painted many scenes of daily life in Asia. Widely recognized as an Orientalist artist, Kienmayer exhibited his works in Indonesia, the Netherlands & at the Great German Art Exhibition in Munich in 1937, with his portrait of Werner Von Blomberg, the Third Reich's Minister Of Defence. This huge exhibition was orchestrated by Hitler in an attempt to promote classical art and destroy Modern, 'Degenerate Art'.