Othmar Zechyr

Oth­mar ZECHYR was born in Linz in 1938. He learned the trades of gar­den­er, book­binder and farmer and sub­se­quent­ly worked in a tree nurs­ery and a gold­smith’s work­shop. From 1952 to 1953, Zechyr attend­ed the graph­ics depart­ment of the State School of Applied Arts in Linz. In 1959, he began his stud­ies at the Acad­e­my of Fine Arts in Vien­na, which he said he dropped out of after a few days. In the 1960s, he took part in sum­mer sem­i­nars for paint­ing, graph­ics and archi­tec­ture at the Salzburg Sum­mer Acad­e­my of Fine Arts in Oskar Kokoschka’s School of See­ing. His first solo exhi­bi­tion took place in 1962, fol­lowed by numer­ous exhi­bi­tions in Aus­tria and abroad from 1970 onwards. In 1979 Zechyr received the Upper Aus­tri­an Provin­cial Cul­ture Prize and in 1995 the Alfred Kubin Prize of the Province of Upper Aus­tria. The artist is one of the most out­stand­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Aus­tri­an draw­ing. Oth­mar Zechyr died in Linz in 1996. 1979 – first exhi­bi­tion in the gallery Welz.