Anton Nowak (10 May 1865 – 28 May 1932) was an Austrian artist and graphic designer.

Life

Nowak was born in

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, the seat of the Drava stati ...

and studied at the

Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) is a public art school in Vienna, Austria. History The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy modelled on the Accademia di Sa ...

under

Christian Griepenkerl Christian Griepenkerl (17 March 1839 – 22 March 1916) was a German painter and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Biography Griepenkerl was born to one of Oldenburg's leading families. As a young man, he heeded the advice of his ...

and Leopold Karl Müller. In 1894, he joined the

Vienna Künstlerhaus The Künstlerhaus in Vienna’s 1st district has accommodated the Künstlerhaus Vereinigung since 1868. It is located in the Ringstrassenzone in between Akademiestraße, Bösendorferstraße and Musikvereinsplatz. The building was erected betw ...

. He was a founding member of the

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (german: Wiener Secession; also known as ''the Union of Austrian Artists'', or ''Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs'') is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austri ...

, and had a work shown at the group's first exhibition. Nowak contributed

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only t ...

s to the group's magazine '' Ver Sacrum'', taking inspiration from the northern Adriatic region. He was on the group's working committee in 1898, 1902, and served as the group's president in 1908-09. He also painted

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

s of Austrian countryside and the city of Brno, where he ran a painting school. He may have died in the city, but this is not certain.

Style

Nowak's paintings were brightly coloured and naturalistic; under the Secession's influence, he experimented with

pointillism Pointillism (, ) is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term "Pointillism" wa ...

in the style of

Théo van Rysselberghe Théophile "Théo" van Rysselberghe (23 November 1862 – 13 December 1926) was a Belgian neo-impressionist painter, who played a pivotal role in the European art scene at the turn of the twentieth century. Biography Early years Born ...

. His work as a designer was firmly within the Secession's tradition. He was influenced by Theodor von Hörmann.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nowak, Anton 1865 births 1932 deaths Artists from Maribor Artists from Vienna Austrian graphic designers Members of the Vienna Secession Academy of Fine Arts Vienna alumni 19th-century Austrian painters Austrian male painters 20th-century Austrian painters 19th-century Austrian male artists 20th-century Austrian male artists Artists from Austria-Hungary