Modern Art - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 1988 - 5 Shilling

Giselbert Hoke was born on 12th September 1927 as the second of six children in the northern Bohemian village of Warnsdorf. He became interested in blacksmithing early on, but became involved in the turmoil of World War II and was severely wounded on April 19, 1945 in the course of fighting for the city of Krems, only 17 years old. He lost his right arm and was taken prisoner of war. The new life Hokes began in 1946 with the completion of the Matura and the entry into the Academy, where he began his own artistic journey in the circle of a Lehmden, Avramidis, Hrdlicka or Hundertwasser. His whole nature with its inner passionate power, which had once brought him to the smithy, to the material iron, he now realized in large picture formats. Since 1958, the artist has worked ever more varied in glass. The result was glass walls for St. Florian in Vienna, the farewell hall in Klagenfurt, the University of Vienna and a glass wheel in Coburg. Hoke was appointed University Professor at the Technical University of Graz in 1974, where he began to create an institute for artistic design.