"The artist Adolf Frohner was born in Gross-Inzersdorf, Lower Austria, on 12 March 1934. In 1952, at the age of eighteen, he went to Vienna, where he worked in various professions until 1961. That year he attended lectures as a guest student at the Academy of Fine Arts. He was awarded a grant to live in Paris in 1961, became involved with the Nouveaux Réalistes and decided to become a freelance artist. After his return to Vienna in 1962 he was one of the originators of Viennese Actionism, together with Hermann Nitsch and Otto Mühl, with the "Blutorgel? action and manifesto. It was not long before he distanced himself from the Actionists, however, because he did not want to work in public. During a further visit to Paris he worked in the studio of Daniel Spoerri, the most important of the Nouveaux Réalistes. Apart from his art, he also worked as a commercial artist and art reviewer. Frohner?s works were shown in major galleries and museums throughout the world from the early 1960s, including the Biennale in Venice (1970) and the Künstlerhaus in Vienna (1993). He was appointed professor at the University of Applied Arts in 1972 and was elected dean in 1987 and prorector in 1989?91.
Frohner received numerous awards including the Austrian State Prize in 1972. After his first Actionist phase and the collages, he concentrated increasingly on painting and drawing. As a tribute to his work, the construction of the Forum Frohner in the former Stein Minorite Church in Krems of a new exhibition and event venue in the Krems museum district, planned and designed in close collaboration with the artist, was commenced while Frohner was still alive. It features Frohner?s own complete oeuvre as well as contemporary works by other Austrian and foreign artists. Frohner did not want a museum devoted to him but rather a platform for vibrant discussion ? not just for exhibitions but also for cultural, communal and social events. Tragically, the artist did not live to see the opening of Forum Frohner in September 2007, having died suddenly and completely unexpectedly on 24 January of that year. Frohner is regarded today as one of the most important and remarkable post-war Austrian painters." (frohner-stiftung.at)
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