Alois Dorn

Alois Dorn (20 May 1908 - 24 August 1985) was an Austrian visual artist known in particular as a sculptor, a painter, a glass-painter and a creator of mosaics.

Biography

Alois Dorn was born at Mühlheim am Inn, a rural village in Upper Austria approximately equidistant between Munich and Linz: he grew up in conditions of some poverty in nearby Suben am Inn. He was one of the ten recorded children of the small businessman Johann Dorn and his wife, born Maria Karl. Several of his siblings would also pursue artistic careers, including the sculptor Conrad Dorn (1915–1987) and the artist Johanna Dorn-Fladerer (1913–1988). Working with wood would remain a particular preference during his career.

Between 1927 and 1933 Alois Dorn studied at the prestigious Academy of Fine Arts ("Akademie der Bildenden Künste") in Munich, emerging with as "Akademischer Bildhauer" qualification. At Munich he was a "Master Student", studying under Joseph Wackerle. Dorn was seeing himself at this time primarily as an "architectural sculptor", producing figures and decorations suitable for imposing public buildings rather than as a producer of free-standing forms for exhibitions in museums and parks.

Between 1933 and 1939 Dorn was working in Munich as a fashionable freelance sculptor. Most of his pieces remained in Bavaria and many of the more significant ones were prominently displayed in Munich. Partly on account of this, much of his work was degraded or destroyed by British and American aerial bombing during the Second World War. In 1933 the National Socialists had taken power and transformed the country into a one-party dictatorship which lasted for slightly more than twelve years. Austria was formally integrated into Nazi Germany in 1938. Through the filter of subsequent decades, most available sources are silent on the details of Alois Dorn's relationship with National Socilialism during these years. According to at least one source, however, Alois Dorn became a party member in May 1938. Although he was not much of a political activist, there are instances that can be adduced to show that he was broadly sympathetic towards aspects of government policy that mainstream opinion after 1945 found deeply unpalatable. The couple's son Lukas was born the next year. There were also already four children in the family from Gertrud's first marriage which had ended in divorce during the war.

Alois Dorn died in Linz on 24 August 1985. Slightly less than quarter of a century later, following the death of Gertrud Fussenegger, the mortal remains of Alois Dorn were dug up and removed to the cemetery at Leonding, near the home the couple had shared.

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