Anton Hanak (22 March 1875,

Brünn Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

– 7 January 1934,

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

) was an Austrian sculptor and art Professor. His works tend to have a visionary-symbolic character, related to

Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

Biography

He studied with

Edmund von Hellmer Edmund Ritter von Hellmer (12 November 1850, Vienna – 9 March 1935, Vienna), born Edmund Hellmer and ennobled in 1912, was an Austrian sculptor who worked in the styles of Historicism and Art Nouveau. Life Hellmer studied architecture at t ...

at the

Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna () is a public art school in Vienna, Austria. Founded in 1688 as a private academy, it is now a public university. The academy is also known for twice rejecting admission to a young Adolf Hitler in 1907 and 1908. ...

, and was associated with the

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (; also known as the Union of Austrian Artists or ) is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors and architects, including Josef Ho ...

. He was also a member of the Vienna Werkstätte, as well as having been a founding member of the . In 1913, he became a teacher at the

Kunstgewerbeschule A Kunstgewerbeschule (English: ''School of Arts and Crafts'' or S''chool of Applied Arts'') was a type of vocational arts school that existed in German-speaking countries from the mid-19th century. The term Werkkunstschule was also used for the ...

and, after 1932, a Professor at the Academy. His students included

Karl Duldig Karl (Karol) Duldig (29 December 1902 – 11 August 1986) was a Jewish sculptor. Born in Poland, he and his family fled Vienna in 1938 following the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, eventually settling in Australia. As a sculptor, he was i ...

,''Australian Dictionary of Biography''
Melbourne University Press, 1981.

Fritz Wotruba Fritz Wotruba (23 April 1907, Vienna, Austria – 28 August 1975, Vienna) was an Austrian sculptor of Czecho- Hungarian descent. He was considered one of the most notable sculptors of the 20th century in Austria. In his work, he increasingly di ...

, Oskar Icha, Ena Rottenberg, , , , and

Pepi Weixlgärtner-Neutra Josephine Therese (Pepi) Weixlgärtner-Neutra (born 19 January 1886 in Vienna – died 1981 in Gothenburg) was an Austrian-Swedish artist, who concentrated on graphic design, painting, sculpture and enamelwork. Life Known as Pepi and born in Au ...

. He created decorative sculptures for several buildings designed by the architect,

Josef Hoffmann Josef Hoffmann (15 December 1870 – 7 May 1956) was an Austrians, Austrian-Sudeten Germans, Moravian architect and designer. He was among the founders of Vienna Secession and co-establisher of the Wiener Werkstätte. His most famous architect ...

, including the Villa Primavesi. During the 1920s, he performed similar work for housing developments by the City of Vienna. He also created

portrait bust A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human body, depicting a person's head and neck, and a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. The bust is generally a portr ...

s and monuments; notably the "

Mater Dolorosa Our Lady of Sorrows (), Our Lady of Dolours, the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows (), and Our Lady of Piety, Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or Our Lady of the Seven Dolours are names by which Mary, mother of Jesus, is referred to in relatio ...

" war memorial at the

Wiener Zentralfriedhof The Vienna Central Cemetery () is one of the largest cemeteries in the world by number of interred, and is the most well-known among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries. The cemetery's name is descriptive of its significance as Vienna's biggest cemet ...

, and a bust of

Victor Adler __NOTOC__ Victor Adler (24 June 1852 – 11 November 1918) was an Austrian politician, a leader of the labour movement and founder of the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP). Life Adler was born on 24 June 1852, in Prague, the son of a Jewi ...

for the . The final project he worked on involved large sculptures for the " Güven Anıtı" (translated as security or trust - literally, "Confidence Monument") in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

, which was proposed and initiated in 1931 by

Clemens Holzmeister Clemens Holzmeister (27 March 1886 – 12 June 1983) was a prominent Austrian architect and stage designer of the early twentieth century. The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austrian Academy of Fine Arts listed his life's work as containing 673 pro ...

. It was left unfinished at the time of Hanak's death and was completed by

Josef Thorak Josef Thorak (7 February 1889 in Vienna, Austria – 26 February 1952 in Bad Endorf, Bavaria) was an Austrian-German sculptor. He became known for oversize monumental sculptures, particularly of male figures, and was one of the most promi ...

in 1936. The monument has since been damaged twice; by graffiti during the

Gezi Park protests A wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Turkey began on 28 May 2013, initially to contest the urban development plan for Istanbul's Gezi Park. The protests were sparked by outrage at the violent eviction of a sit-in at the park protesting ...

(2013), and by shrapnel during the attempted coup in 2016. He died of a heart attack and was interred at the Hietzinger Friedhof. A street in Vienna's Penzing district is named after him. At the , there is a special area devoted to the work of him and his students.

Sources

* * Hugo Haberfeld: "Der Bildhauer Anton Hanak", In: ''Neues Wiener Journal'', Vol. 27, # 9179, 1919, pgs.5–6
online
. * Friedrich Grassegger, Wolfgang Krug: ''Anton Hanak (1875–1934)''. Böhlau, 1997

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hanak, Anton Austrian male sculptors Austrian people of Czech descent 1875 births 1934 deaths Academy of Fine Arts Vienna alumni 20th-century Austrian sculptors Wiener Werkstätte 20th-century Austrian male artists