Josef Mikl

1929 Vienna - 2008 Vienna

Josef Mikl was born on August 8, 1929 in Vienna. He studied from 1946 onwards at the Graphic Arts Education and Research Institute in Vienna and from 1948 to 1955 at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, in Josef Dobrowsky‘s master class for painting. As from 1951, he was a member of the International Art Club Section Austria, which was disbanded in 1955. In 1956 he founded the group "Galerie St. Stephan", which exhibited for the first time a year later at the Vienna Secession, together with Prachensky, Rainer and Hollegha. Mikl represented Austria in 1968 at the 34th Venice Biennale. The following year, he already accepted a professorship for painting and from 1972 to 1997 the master class for nature studies (evening nude drawing) at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. From 1975 to 1976, Mikl created a large mural in the chapel of the Education Centre St. Virgil in Salzburg. From 1983 to 1990, Mikl taught almost every second year the class for painting, nude drawing and sculpture at the Summer Academy in Salzburg. From 1994 to 1997, his biggest public contract, a large ceiling painting and twenty-two murals for the Großer Redoutensaal at the Hofburg in Vienna originated. Mikl has been a passionate drawer, who has designed costumes and sets, as well as stained glass windows, among other things, for the Church of Peace in Hiroshima, Japan in 1960. His works have been shown in numerous exhibitions at home and abroad, and have been honoured. In 1990 he received the Austrian Medal for Science and Art, in 2004 he was awarded with the large gold medal for services to the Republic of Austria, as well as the Ring of Honour of the City of Vienna. Josef Mikl died in 2008 in Vienna.