Walter ECKERT (1913-2001) - Lot 122

Walter ECKERT (1913-2001) Composition Oil on canvas, signed, dated 76 and located Ville Franche lower right. H_ 65 cm W_ 55 cm Walter Eckert, born on September 8, 1913 in Leobersdorf (Austria) and died on January 7, 2001 in Vienna, was a major Austrian painter of the XXᵉ century, whose work was part of European **modernism and the continuation of the classical Modern. He studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts from 1935 to 1939, notably with Herbert Boeckl, before being mobilized during the Second World War and taken prisoner until 1945. From the end of the war onwards, he pursued a career as an independent painter, becoming a significant voice on the Viennese art scene.Eckert is best known for his painting centered on the human figure, particularly his variations on heads and portraits, which he treats with a formal reduction influenced by neo-Cubism and an expressive sensibility of his own, seeking to confront inner subjectivity with outer reality through the pictorial medium.Parallel to his creative work, he played an important institutional role: as early as 1952, he was a member of the Wiener Secession, serving as its president from 1965 to 1967, and then took on management responsibilities at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, where he taught and became rector from 1967 to 1969, influencing several generations of artists. His work has been regularly exhibited in Austria and elsewhere, including a retrospective at the Belvedere in Vienna in 2004, and is included in several public collections, including the Albertina and the Mumok in Vienna.