Hortensia Fussy

Life

From 1970–1972, Hortensia studied sculpture at the School of Applied Arts in Graz with Josef Pillhofer and from 1972–1975 at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with Fritz Wotruba. Since 1975, she is a freelance artist. In parallel to her work as a sculptor, Hortensia has created cycles of drawings and water colours during numerous trips within Europe and Africa, including the landscape cycles Spain (1983–1985), Tuscany and Umbria (1987–1990), Portugal (1997), Dalmatia (1999–2002), Egypt (2000), Sicily (2002) and Italian Dolomites (2003–2012). From 2003–2012, she has been leading the "Drawing School Hortensia" in Bad Gams, Western Styria.

Artistic Work

The focus of the work of the Austrian sculptor and painter Hortensia is the human figure. "Hortensia Fussy continues a development of visual arts in Austria, which starts with Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele and has been continued by artists such as the painter Herbert Boeckl and the sculptor Josef Pillhofer. The greatest influence on Hortensia Fussys artistic career however was by the renowned Austrian sculptor Fritz Wotruba."

In an early working phase, Hortensia put a special focus to the transition from the second into the third dimension. "With sculptures done from images of Piero della Francesca, Francisco de Goya, Albrecht Dürer or Jan Vermeer, she has been going along this path of "spatialization" in the early 1980s", including sculptures such as "Figure after Goya," 1980; "Figure after Dürer", 1981, "Hommage a Courbet", 1988–95.

The interaction of the two terms "shape" and "figure" are defining Hortensias aesthetic imperative: "My sculptures shall be earthy, centered, sensual and measured !". Since 2002, Hortensia has been running a series of exhibitions entitled "Shape and Figure" (Slovakia, Bratislava, 2003; USA Washington D.C, 2004; Russia, Moscow, 2008; Deutschlandsberg Castle, Styria, 2009–2010.

Awards

Permanently exhibited works (Selection)

Personal Exhibitions (Selection)

Literature