Karl Matzek

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karl George Matzek (1890–1983) was an Austrian artist of Czech descent who is best noted for his panoramas of historic battles [1] and murals of Biblical scenes in church buildings.

Matzek was a graduate of the Berlin Academy of Art. He was showing in museums and at better galleries of Europe at his artistic height(in the 1930s) and had been awarded various medals for his works,among them the gold medal by the Russian tsar for his "Battle of Borodin". He fought in the Austrian-Hungarian cavalry in World War I, and was imprisoned in Siberia after the October Revolution. He succeeded to escape and in the following years, he traversed the whole continent by foot. This part of his life has not been adequately clarified. On a winter day after World War II, he was found sick and half-frozen by villagers of Balatun in Bosnia and accepted in their midst in exchange for painting frescos in their churches. Until his recovery, Matzek was placed in the most honorable home in the community, of a young widow with three children, the mother of the sculptor Slobodan Pejić. For almost ten years, Matzek educated the boy, and married his mother. He was the only father the boy knew. They were inseparable and painted frescos together. The boy painted lower parts and Matzek painted upper parts.[2]

In Harkanovci there is the parish church of Our Lady, built in 1799, restored and expanded in 1938. The entire interior was painted with frescoes and stained glass was created for the windows. The frescoes were painted by Karl Matzek in the period from 1955 to 1957. His frescos decorate also churches/monasteries in Janja, in Dragaljevac, in Bijeljina and elsewhere.[2] Earlier Matzek had been sentenced to death by communist authorities, but in Bosnia he was saved by the influence of the parish priest don Mirko Gazivode. In return he painted two murals in the church. Parishioners liked them and then ordered all other frescoes in the church.

Matzek migrated to Perth, Western Australia, in 1958. There he painted the Stations of the Cross, a series of 14 pictures, in the "Como Catholic Church" in Western Australia. Matzek later moved to Canberra, where there was a sizeable Serbian immigrant population who first arrived there in 1949, following World War II. The Serbs built St George Serbian Orthodox Church in 1966, after the Government granted them a block of land at the National Circuit, Forrest, close to Parliament House. In the following year, Matzek, then 77, was commissioned to decorate the interior of the church, and for the next 16 years, until his death in 1983, he devoted himself to painting the side walls, ceiling and altar screen, depicting episodes in Serbian history as well as Biblical scenes. Even though the Church itself is small in size, Matzek’s two 20-metre-long panoramas and murals have attracted visitors daily from all parts of Australia and overseas. Times had been rough for many years after his arrival to Australia, but Matzek had hoped that his family could join him there eventually.[3] Since he had moved to Australia and until his death, due to difficulties and expenses involved in global communication in those times, Matzek remained only in written contact with the family in Bosnia, hoping for a long time that they could join him. He sent art books and art journals to Pejić, and supported his family financially as much as possible.[2]

Later in his life, during his continued work with the Church, Karl Matzek converted to the Orthodox faith as "George". Following a brief illness, Matzek died on 16 April 1983, and was buried at the St. Sava Monastery Cemetery in Canberra.

References

  1. ↑ S.Pejić and V.Mušič
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 (Slovene) Vanda Mušič (ed). Bassin, Aleksander. Kokot, Staša. Slobodan Pejić. Self-published by Vanda Mušič Chapman. 2007. ISBN 978-961-245-325-1.
  3. ↑ V. Mušič and the Pejić family correspondence

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.