FRANZ WIEGELE

FRANZ WIEGELE WAS BORN

1887 IN NÖTSCH. DURING HIS SCHOOL DAYS, HE WAS PARTICULARLY ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT DRAWING LESSONS. WIEGELE’S FIRST DRAWINGS AND PAINTERLY ATTEMPTS ARE THEREFORE NATURAL REPRODUCTION OF THE INDIVIDUAL OBJECTS.

In the 2023/2024 season, the Stadttheater Klagenfurt will continue to be a venue open to all, a place for reflection, discussion, and encounter. Eleven productions are scheduled for the main stage, six for musical theater, four drama productions, and one major children’s theater production. The program is augmented by a number of additional projects for young theatergoers of all ages, as well as a varied “Statt Theater” program featuring concerts, readings, stand-up comedy, and two series of talks. The Carinthian Symphony Orchestra will present six concerts in the Konzerthaus, as well as three special concerts and a family concert. After a long absence, a theater festival will offer an entertaining and diverse program of events. n

1907 he began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. At the same time, Anton Kolig from the Moravian Neutitschein also entered the Vienna Academy. A friendship quickly developed, which also became a family relationship in 1911 through Kolig’s marriage to Wiegele’s sister Katharina. Another fellow student at the academy was Egon Schiele, with whom he remained in contact with until his early death. Some students led by Schiele formed the “Neukunstgruppe” (New Art Group). In 1911, the gallery organized the trend-setting “Special exhibition for painting and sculpture” in the rooms of the Vienna Hagenbund, at which Franz Wiegele’s first major work was shown, the “Nudes in the forest”.

In 1914, he embarked on a trip to to Algeria and Morocco. Wiegele was arrested by the French in Algeria. After a serious lung disease, Wiegele was transferred to an internment camp on the island of St. Marguérite near Cannes and later he was transferred to Zurich as an exchange prisoner for recovery in the Lenzerheide sana - torium through the mediation of the Austrian envoy. 1917, Franz Wiegele moved to Zurich and began to build a new life there as a freelance painter on the advice of his Nötscher relatives. He soon made social contacts and traveled in social circles, which also gave him access to wellknown Swiss collector families. In 1927, Franz Wiegele returned to Nötsch and started to work on the large-format group portrait “Family portrait of Hubert Isepp”, which was acquired a year later by the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna.

On 17 December, bombs hit Franz Wiegele’s home- and studio house, The artist, his mother Gertrud, his sister Hedwig Fina and their foster daughter Maria Kassin were found dead and many of his works were destroyed. n