Helmut Leherb

Helmut Leherb (14 March 1933 – 28 June 1997) was an Austrian artist and representative of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, which is close to Surrealism. He was born Helmut Leherbauer in Vienna and is also known as Maître Leherb.

He was the son of a school headmaster who died in 1945 after the liberation of Austria as a result of National Socialist imprisonment. Helmut Leherbauer graduated from the Hernalser Gymnasium Geblergasse in Vienna in 1951 and studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the Stockholm Royal Academy (Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts) from 1948 to 1954. In 1955 he moved back to Vienna to the Academy of Fine Arts in the class of Albert Paris Gütersloh, where he witnessed the direct confrontation with Surrealism. Gütersloh co-founded the Art Club and is considered the founder of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism. Leherb thus found access to this circle of artists and organised various exhibitions together with other representatives of this art movement, for example with Anton Lehmden, Rudolf Hausner and Wolfgang Hutter. In 1959 their works were shown at the Upper Belvedere. At that time, the art critic Johann Muschik coined the name of Fantastic Realism, which is still valid today.

From 1959 to 1963, works of art were created in Viennese parks that still exist today:

The central motifs that can be found in many of his paintings are his own person, that of his wife, the painter Lotte Profohs (b. 16 November 1934, d. 2012) or his son, Anselm Daniel Leherb. Throughout his life, he was a Viennese society darling due to his personal forms of representation. Leherb also lived in France, Belgium and Italy. In Paris he made the acquaintance of André Breton, who called him the "black prince of surrealism". However, Leherb was disgusted by what he perceived as "Parisian decadence" and allegedly poured a wine glass on Breton.

In 1964, Leherb was nominated for the Venice Biennale with his Time Destruction Manifesto, but his participation was prevented by the new Minister of Education Theodor Piffl-Perčević (ÖVP) after a government reshuffle. The plan was to have a deep blue pavilion with dead pigeons, umbrellas and dolls stuck to the walls. An art scandal was looming, and the leading art journal in Paris "Arts et Loisirs" ran the headline "First scandal of the Venice Biennale! The German magazine "Stern" put the scandal on the front page: "Surrealist Leherb: no white mice for Venice" and was not sparing with outbursts against the "cultural country" Austria.

Walter Koschatzky described Piffl-Perčević's understanding of art in his memoirs as "frighteningly low". The deselection troubled Leherb but boosted his profile enormously and opened the doors to the most important galleries in Europe: Galerie de la Madeleine and Isy Brachot in Brussels, Galerie C.A.W. in Antwerp, la Medusa in Rome; Galerie Mokum in Amsterdam, Peithner-Lichtenfels and Wolfrum in Vienna and Galleria Viotti in Turin.

Leherb, fascinated by painterly valeur, the watercolour-like sfumato, and continued to realise ceramic reliefs and mosaics. In 1963, he created the "Reactionary Confirmation Dream" in the Villa Cabasso in Aix-en-Provence. In 1964 he created the ceramic mural "Explosion of Silence", for the building of the Central Savings Bank of the Municipality of Vienna.

In 1971 / 1972, Leherb was commissioned by the later "Österreich Werbung" (Austrian National Tourist Office "ANTO") (then still Österreichische Fremdenverkehrswerbung, ÖFVW) to design four posters. The posters "I like Mozart", "A girl playing her cello on a cloud", "Island of Longing" and "A lady with a Lipizzaner" were created. The then chairman of the ÖFVW, Trade Minister Josef Staribacher, staged the launch of the new series with publicity: he set the printing press in motion himself. The posters were quickly sold out. A possible new edition is being planned.