432 - Herbert Albrecht* (Au im Bregenzerwald 1927 - 2021 Wolfurt)

Herbert Albrecht* (Au im Bregenzerwald 1927 - 2021 Wolfurt) Kidnapping, 2008 lithography/paper 31 x 44,5 cm signed Albrecht, dated 2008 numbered VII/XX SCHÄTZPREIS / ESTIMATE € 200 - 300 STARTPREIS / STARTING PRICE € 200 Herbert Albrecht was born on February 7, 1927, in Au im Bregenzerwald. He began his artistic training as early as 1941 at the School of Arts and Crafts in Innsbruck in Hans Pontiller’s sculpture class; although interrupted by the war, he completed his studies in 1946. From 1949 to 1955, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna—initially under Franz Santifaller and Herbert Boeckl, and from 1951 under Fritz Wotruba, whose approach to sculpture proved particularly formative for Albrecht’s development. After completing his studies, Albrecht returned to Vorarlberg, where he lived and worked in Wolfurt. Working within the tradition of modern sculpture and Austrian post-war sculpture, and taking the human figure as his starting point, he developed a distinctive formal language characterized by increasing reduction and abstraction. His works—predominantly executed in stone and metal and classified as figurative sculpture—combine an archaic, classical austerity with an existential, contemporary conception of the human image. In doing so, Albrecht often condensed the human figure into clearly articulated, monumental, block-like volumes, thereby approaching a formal language that transcended the Wotruba school. Within the context of Austrian sculpture in the second half of the 20th century, Albrecht’s work can be viewed alongside that of artists such as Alfred Hrdlicka, Wander Bertoni, Josef Pillhofer, and Oskar Höfinger. While Hrdlicka often rendered the human figure with expressive, socially critical intensity, and Bertoni developed more organic-abstract solutions—with Pillhofer working at the intersection of figuration, abstraction, and classical modernism—Albrecht remained committed to a conception of sculpture that was calm, sensitive to material, and oriented toward permanence. Wilhelm Lehmbruck can also be cited as a significant earlier reference point for modern figurative sculpture; his existential conception of the human form played a pivotal role in the development of 20th-century European sculpture. Within the context of post-1945 art in Vorarlberg, Albrecht stands alongside later and younger artists such as Gottfried Bechtold, Walter Kölbl, and Herbert Meusburger. His work holds a distinctive position, as it firmly established modern sculpture not only within museum or private settings but also as a lasting presence in public spaces. Numerous sculptures, works of a sacred nature, and pieces integrated into architectural contexts bear witness to his endeavor to imbue the human figure—rendered in stone and bronze—with a presence that is at once timeless, concentrated, and site-specific. PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights and platform fee. In the case of normal taxation (marked ° at the estimate), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax is added to the sum of the highest bid, the buyer's premium and platform fee. This amounts to 13% for paintings, drawings, graphic works and sculptures and 20% for photographs and all other items. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.