Program

From 04. 05. 2024
Until 15. 09. 2024

Language: DE
Siebenbürgisches Museum Gundelsheim
Schloss Horneck 1, Gundelsheim

Identity Touches. Hans Fronius, Franz Kafka and World Literature

As he himself explained, it was a „touch of identities“, „an affinity given by the mental disposition“, that connected the graphic artist, painter and illustrator Hans Fronius (1903 – 1988), who came from a Transylvanian (Siebenbürgen) family, with Franz Kafka throughout his life.

As early as 1937, Fronius traveled to Prague, where he was able to exhibit his first Kafka illustrations in the Art Association and met Kafka's friends Max Brod and Johannes Urzidil. After Austria was annexed to Nazi Germany, Fronius was attacked as a „friend of Jews“.

The spiritual connection to the already deceased writer remained and was expressed in numerous other graphics based on Kafka's works in the post-war period. These can be discovered in the exhibition of the Transylvanian (Siebenbürgen) Museum Gundelsheim.

The show is complemented by artistic adaptations of world literature from Fyodor Dostoyevsky to Julien Green, which identify Hans Fronius as one of the most important Austrian illustrators of his time.

With over 230 solo exhibitions since 1945, Hans Fronius is one of the most frequently exhibited Austrian artists. As early as 1958 he represented Austria at the Venice Biennale. He received the Grand Austrian State Prize in 1966 and the Lovis Corinth Prize in 1983.

© Museum of Transylvania (Siebenbürgen), Gundelsheim / M. Lörz