Louis Hechenbleikner

Woodcut artist and lithographer Louis Hechenbleikner spent his early and later years in Austria. During most of his career, however, he lived and worked in New York City. Hechenbleikner received his education in the graphic arts in Innsbruck, Dusseldorf and München. He moved to New York in 1923 where he worked as a professor for graphics and art history. Hechenbleikner started from representational depictions of everyday American life including big city, sports, and circus scenes as well as socially critical and symbolic content. In the 1950s he came under the influence of abstract expressionism, to compose free abstract compositions. He was a full member of the National Academy of Design. In the 1970s he returned to Austria and settled at the ski resort Kitzbühel.

Five realistic woodcuts by Hechenbleikner were exhibited in 1932, four of them with motifs from American football produced in the same year, while the last one showed a Boxing Match.