435 - Josef Pillhofer* (Vienna 1921 - 2010 Vienna)

Josef Pillhofer* (Vienna 1921 - 2010 Vienna) Red Figure, 2008 etching/paper 58,9 x 41 cm signed J. Pillhofer monogrammed and dated in the plate P. 2008 SCHÄTZPREIS / ESTIMATE € 300 - 500 STARTPREIS / STARTING PRICE € 300 Josef Pillhofer ranks among the most significant Austrian sculptors and draftsmen of Classical Modernism in the post-1945 era. His sculptures move masterfully along the boundary between human figuration and strict geometric abstraction. Although he remained committed to the human figure throughout his life, he increasingly reduced it to basic cubic forms with a tectonic structure. Working in stone, bronze, wood, and clay, he conceived of sculpture as a balanced relationship between mass, space, and articulated volume. Pillhofer began his training at the School of Arts and Crafts in Graz between 1938 and 1941. After World War II, he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, becoming a student of Fritz Wotruba. Wotruba’s approach to the figure—characterized by a block-like, architectural structure—provided a crucial starting point for Pillhofer; however, through his engagement with Cubism and international modernism, Pillhofer evolved this into a more personal, highly reduced formal language. A state scholarship took him to Paris in 1950 to attend the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, where he worked in Ossip Zadkine’s sculpture class. There, he encountered key figures and approaches in modern sculpture: Constantin Brâncuși became significant for his focus on elemental, self-contained forms; Henri Laurens for the Cubist dissolution and reconfiguration of the body; and Alberto Giacometti for the existential tension of the human figure. Pillhofer’s work combines these influences with a distinct constructive clarity and a unique sense of proportion. From 1952 to 1959, Pillhofer was a member of the Vienna Art Club, a central platform for Austrian post-war modernism; he joined the Vienna Secession in 1955. From 1970 to 1981, he led a master class in sculpture at the School of Arts and Crafts in Graz, thereby shaping a younger generation of sculptors. 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.