Heinrich Heidersberger
Work in Focus
The German photo artist Heinrich Heidersberger (born 06-10-1906 in Ingolstadt, died 07-14-2006) spent his youth in Linz, after his mother returned to the city of her birth with the children following the death of his father in 1911. Heinrich joined the “Wandervögel” movement. He became interested in natural sciences and cultivated his first cactuses. In 1925 he finished school in Linz with university study qualifications. Following a six-month traineeship in the transformer company of Koch & Sterzel in Dresden, he worked as a journeyman mason for the construction company Kremeyer in Linz. In 1927 he registered to study architecture in Graz. At the beginning of his artistic career as a painter, Heidersberger joined the Linz artists association Maerz. He traveled to Paris in 1928, where he attended Fernand Léger’s painting school.
During his stay in Linz in 1931, he and his friends founded the literary cabinet “Thermophylen”. Following travels to Den Haag and Copenhagen, in 1936 Heidersberger was drawn to Berlin, where he worked as a freelance photo journalist. Only a year later he received major commissions for architectural photos, including from the Heinkel Aviation Plant in Oranienburg. After the war he initially got by as a translator and portrait artist. During the fifties Heidersberger worked as a photo journalist for the magazines “stern” and “Merian”. A commission for a mural in the engineering school in Wolfenbüttel inspired him to develop the first “rhythmogrammes”. For this, Heidersberger developed a special apparatus to record light traces directly onto photo material. With these works he positioned himself in the proximity to the Informel and Constructivism in terms of style.
After moving to Wolfsburg, where Heidersberger has lived since then, he founded the artist colony “Schloßstraße 8” with fellow painters. His photo works were already exhibited in Linz in 1962 and 1967 and again in 1987 in the New Gallery of the City of Linz. In 1987 the artist was awarded the Silver Plaque of the city of Wolfsburg, in 2003 he was made an honorary citizen of Wolfsburg.
In honor of Heinrich Heidersberger´s 100th birthday, the Lentos Art Museum presents the seven photo works that belong to Lentos, augmented by six more works on loan from the Heidersberger Institute in Wolfsburg.