FRIEDRICH MAYER-BECK* (Vienna 1907-1977 Leoben)
Bundle of 6 prints

Wolf and donkey
woodcut/paper, 13 x 17,5 cm
dated 1984
in the plate, monogrammed MB; rubber-stamped, F. Mayer-Beck, rubber-stamped Handabzug Atelier der Edition Graphischer Zirkel

Death claiming a musician
woodcut/paper, 12 x 17 cm
rubber-stamped F. Mayer-Beck

Christ in the storm
woodcut/paper, 17,2 x 11,9 cm
rubber-stamped F. Mayer-Beck

Hell
woodcut/paper, 17,2 x 11,8 cm
rubber-stamped F. Mayer-Beck

Death
woodcut/paper, 17,5 x 12,5 cm
rubber-stamped F. Mayer-Beck

Death claiming lovers
woodcut/paper, 17 x 12 cm
rubber-stamped F. Mayer-Beck

ESTIMATE °€ 100 - 200
STARTING PRICE °€ 100

The artist was born Friedrich Mayer in Vienna. His family moved to Horn in Lower Austria in 1916. After the death of his parents, he grew up in Vienna from the age of fourteen with his aunt Maria Beck and her husband, the landscape painter Friedrich Beck. He later adopted his uncle's surname as his artist's name. After graduating from high school, Mayer-Beck studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He attended the general painting school under Wilhelm Dachauer and then the master school for painting under Rudolf Bacher until 1933. In between, he obtained the teaching qualification for "freehand drawing" at secondary schools as well as for mathematics and descriptive geometry. After completing the masterclass, Mayer-Beck worked as an assistant teacher from 1934, later as an assistant teacher in Graz at Akademisches Gymnasium and at the 2. Staatsgymnasium in Grabenstraße. In the 1930s, his art focussed on expressive wood engravings, although the majority of his works were lost during the turmoil of war. In 1939, Mayer-Beck married the actress Maria Kindl. At the end of the Second World War, he lost his job in Graz for political reasons. In October 1945, he became an assistant teacher at the Bundesrealgymnasium in Leoben, where he was given a permanent position in 1949.He was a member of the artists' association in Graz and in 1947 a founding member of the "Upper Styrian Cultural Association", on whose behalf he also gave lectures and courses on art and art history. Mayer-Beck received several major commissions for public spaces, for example in 1954 he designed the floor-to-ceiling sgraffito in a municipal housing complex (the so-called "U-Block") in Leitendorf and was involved in the interior design of the Leoben-Goeß kindergarten. His designs for tapestries in the meeting room of the district administration of Leoben were realised in the applied arts. In 1969, he was awarded the silver medal of honour for services to the Republic of Austria by the Federal President and retired as a senior teacher in 1971. He then retired to his second domicile near Seckau Abbey for intensive work. Despite health problems, this period became one of the most artistically productive periods of his life, particularly in relation to reverse glass painting. In Leoben, he created woodcut cycles, book illustrations, drawings and reverse glass paintings, which became the main means of expression in his work. His last monumental work was the series of murals in the Raiffeisenkasse, Hauptplatz 15 in 1975/76. His estate was handed over to the Museum of the City of Leoben by his widow in 1996.

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. In the case of normal taxation (marked °), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax of 13%, for photographs 20%, is added to the sum of the highest bid and the buyer's premium. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.