Christmas - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2006 - 55 Euro Cent

The theme of the first Christmas stamp 2006 - Holy Family at Rest - is a recurring subject of the artist Franz Weiß, born 1921 in Södingberg near Voitsberg. His mother gave him a Christian world view, which accompanies and shapes him throughout his life. Religiousness is not only a private matter for him - as a traveling painter, as he describes himself, he has created more than 490 objects for public space, such as church and chapel equipment, historical cycles and small art monuments in 237 locations in Austria and abroad. In the vicinity of his home and studio in the western Styrian town of Bärnbach, in Tregisttal, the Marian devotee created an exemplary Gesamtkunstwerk with the Tregister Dorfkapelle Maria Knotenlöserin. The art creation and the personality of Franz Weiß form a unity, grown out of tradition, the love for nature and the homeland. To the early recognizable talent came a solid education - interrupted by five years of war service -, mediated by the teacher personalities Rudolf Szyszkowitz, Albert Paris Gütersloh and Herbert Boeckl in Graz and Vienna, with the degree of academic painter. From the Austrian Late Expressionism he developed through his specific style language a contemporary reduction Realism and thus takes an independent position within Austrian painting. He sees himself as a bridge builder between the old and the new, between tradition and modernity. In his oeuvre he proves versatility, he works with wood, metal, enamel, glass, makes mosaics and paints frescoes. The artist's life's work also includes the medium of watercolor painting, more than 500 reverse glass paintings and 400 woodcuts so far. The extensive work is documented in numerous art books: artist monograph, 1988; The woodcut, 1991; Reverse glass pictures, 1998; Woodcuts, 1999; Watercolors, 2001; Working in Public Space, 2003. In 1979, he was awarded the title Professor, and in 2005 he received the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art in Vienna. In the portrayal of the Holy Family at the Rast, 1959, 73 cm x 48 cm (photo CROCE & WIR, Graz), Franz Weiß places a traditional type of image in the real environment of the city of Voitsberg. Against the backdrop of the parish church of St. Joseph, the Holy Family is resting in the open field. The reduced forms, combined with the bright colors of red, blue, green and white as the brightest light value, gives the composition a tight structure and a well-balanced composition. Franz Weiß dedicated his life to beauty and tradition and created enduring values. This is a kind of revolutionary endeavor today. This is how Friedensreich Hundertwasser, his fellow student, characterizes the artist's life's work.