Markus Prachensky

Markus PRACHENSKY was born on March 21, 1932 in Inns­bruck. In 1952 he began study­ing archi­tec­ture at the Acad­e­my of Fine Arts in Vien­na (Welzen­bach­er Mas­ter School), while at the same time study­ing paint­ing at the Acad­e­my from 1953 and tak­ing part in Her­bert Boeck­l’s evening class­es. In 1955 Markus Prachen­sky exhib­it­ed for the first time in a group exhi­bi­tion in the “Galerie St. Stephan”, which had recent­ly opened. Togeth­er with Hol­legha, Mikl and Rain­er, he found­ed the leg­endary Galerie St. Stephan group in 1956. In the fol­low­ing years, the artist lived alter­nate­ly in Vien­na, Paris, Ham­burg, Berlin and Stuttgart. In 1967, he moved to Los Ange­les, from where he returned to Europe in 1970. From 1972 Prachen­sky lived in Vien­na. Exten­sive trav­els repeat­ed­ly took him to Italy, France, Spain, the USA, Mex­i­co and the Far East. In 1983, he was appoint­ed pro­fes­sor at the Acad­e­my of Fine Arts, where he retired in 2000. In 2001, he was appoint­ed to the Curia for Art of the Aus­tri­an Medal of Hon­or for Sci­ence and Art. Prachen­sky has received numer­ous hon­ors and awards, includ­ing the City of Vien­na’s Gold­en Medal of Hon­or in 1992, the Aus­tri­an Dec­o­ra­tion of Hon­or for Sci­ence and Art in 2000, the City of Vien­na Prize for Fine Arts in 2003 and the Grand Dec­o­ra­tion of Hon­or in Gold for Ser­vices to the Repub­lic of Aus­tria in 2006. Markus Prachen­sky died on July 16, 2011 in Vien­na. 1979 – first exhi­bi­tion in the Welz gallery.