Gottfried Mairwöger

Got­tfried MAIRWÖGER was born on Feb­ru­ary 4, 1951 in Trag­wein in Upper Aus­tria. He stud­ied at the Acad­e­my of Fine Arts in Vien­na with Josef Mikl and Wolf­gang Hol­legha. The gen­er­ous, spa­cious paint­ings of the artist, who was also suc­cess­ful in the USA, pos­sess light­ness and rhythm. Large sec­tions of Got­tfried Mair­wöger’s oeu­vre mark a con­nect­ing inter­me­di­ate posi­tion with­in Col­or Field Paint­ing, which emerged in the USA at the begin­ning of the 1960s, and the Abstract Expres­sion­ism that pre­ced­ed it. In 1976 Mair­wöger met the art crit­ic Clement Green­berg, who invit­ed him to the USA. In the USA, Mair­wöger estab­lished numer­ous con­tacts with Amer­i­can painters. Study and work vis­its have repeat­ed­ly tak­en Mair­wöger to Italy, Spain, the USA, Mau­ri­tius and Sri Lan­ka. In 1974 Mair­wöger took part in the exhi­bi­tion “Oberöster­re­ichis­che Avant­garde” at the New Gallery of the City of Linz (Lentos). From 1975, he reg­u­lar­ly exhib­it­ed and par­tic­i­pat­ed in exhi­bi­tions in Aus­tria and abroad.
Got­tfried Mair­wöger received the Upper Aus­tri­an State Prize for Paint­ing in 1972 and the Mon­sign­or Otto Mauer Prize for Paint­ing in 1982.
Got­tfried Mair­wöger died in Vien­na in 2003. 2022 — Welz Gallery.