Adolf Frohner was born in Groß-Inzersdorf, in 1934. He simultaneously attended the Fachschule für Wirtschaftswerbung (Academy for Business Advertising) and the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts (1954–1958), at the latter as a guest student under Herbert Boeckl. His early exploratory works, which were quite independent from his formal training, reflect the influence of some of the seminal figures of European modernity, such as Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger, Oskar Schlemmer and Paul Klee. Nevertheless, an attraction to the academic milieu led the painter to pursue a successful career at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. He acted as a member of the Board of Trustees for Art at ORF (the Austrian public service broadcaster) from 1976 to 1980, and was subsequently appointed emeritus to the Institute Board at the Institute for Fine Arts at the University of Applied Arts where he headed the masterclass for painting until 2005.
In 1961, taking advantage of a UNESCO scholarship, Frohner went to Paris, where he met and spent time with the intellectuals linked to the Nouveaux Réalistes movement and its figurehead, Pierre Restany. The following year, animated by a need for novelty through transgression, Frohner locked himself and his peers Muehl and Nitsch in a basement studio in the Perinetgasse in Vienna for three days. This torturous event – and the several manifestos that accompanied it shortly afterwards – is seen as the birth of Viennese Actionism, a short-lived movement guided by the rejection of conventional means of creation. Transgression and violence became key components of this initiative and were the source of much controversy and criticism, even at the time.
Later works – during his second Parisian stay working in the studio of Daniel Spoerri – testify to a realist shift in theme and approach, with panel painting serving the more figurative depiction of female figures. The artist’s gestural energy is still freely expressed, but the results are closer to American action painting of the 20th century rather than stemming from the more performance-focused technique prevalent in Viennese Actionism.
Various institutions and cultural figures gave Frohner his well-deserved visibility. In 1967, for example, the Austrian painter represented his country alongside the likes of Walter Pichler and Richard Kriesche at the Venice Biennale – thanks to the invitation of Werner Hofmann, then director of the Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (mumok). The Sao Paolo Biennale of 1969 represented Frohner’s true international breakthrough. The Künstlerhaus in Vienna dedicated a retrospective to the artist in 1993. The city of Krems went a step further by dedicating a permanent museum to the artist – but Frohner died before seeing the institution built.
Frohner has also received public commissions throughout his career, more specifically in the form of murals: in 1976 for the Vienna International Centre (colloquially known as ‘UNO City’) and in 1995 for Vienna Schwechat airport.
Adolf Frohner passed away in 2007. In 2009, a foundation in his name was created, regrouping 25 of the artist’s most notable works, as well as a wealth of private documentation, which it strives to make accessible to the general public.
