Reimo Wukounig

Reimo Serge Wukounig was born in Klagenfurt on 5 March 1943 and grew up in modest circumstances in Sankt Kanzian am Klopeiner See in southern Carinthia. His father died young, and because of his mother's resulting illness he was placed in care from the age of eight. As "Zögling 33" (pupil 33) he lived first in the state home at Harbach near Klagenfurt, closed in 1955 because of the conditions there, and then in the Rosental youth home at Görtschach near Ferlach. Life in the homes was marked by beatings and abuse, and he was one of the victims of the paediatrician Franz Wurst, whom he later called a monster.

His gift for drawing was recognised in the home, and at 13 he was allowed to attend adult education classes with the painter Karl Truppe. He then trained in traditional fresco technique under Rudolf Spohn at the Bundesgewerbeschule (Ortweinschule) in Graz.

From 1962 to 1967 Wukounig studied in the master class of Sergius Pauser at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. His work was shown at the Vienna Secession as early as 1969, and in 1971 he became a full member of the Secession's association of artists. From 1974 to 1979 he held an assistant post at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, and afterwards he taught drawing, pictorial design and conceptual installation in the graphic design class of the Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt until his retirement.

In 1976 he was one of Austria's representatives at the Venice Biennale, together with Wolfgang Walkensteiner. There he first showed the sixteen-part cycle Einatmen, Ausatmen (Breathe in, breathe out), an autobiographical reckoning with his childhood in the homes. Large solo exhibitions followed at the Secession in 1983, at the Albertina in Vienna and the Kulturhaus Graz in 1991, and at Galerie Vorspann in 2014. His work also appeared in exhibitions at the Künstlerhaus, the Museum der Moderne Salzburg, the Essl Museum, the Museum Moderner Kunst Kärnten and the Museum Liaunig, where in 2022 he recalled his years in a children's home with an installation of floor brushes.

Primarily a draughtsman, he said that line mattered most to him as a left-hander and that he only added colour when a drawing felt too thin. His imagery, schooled on Francis Bacon, was often described as disturbing. Later works included installations of ironing boards set out like steles, multitudes of faces, a figure with a split head and a cycle of X-ray bells. For his 80th birthday the city of Klagenfurt honoured him with the exhibition Schwerkraft ohne Gnade, and the filmmaker Peter Putz made the documentary Der Schmerzraum des Zöglings 33 about his life.

Wukounig lived and worked in Vienna for many years while keeping close ties to Carinthia, and in particular to Sankt Kanzian, where he grew up. He spoke publicly about the abuse he suffered as a child in the care homes and worked through it in his art and in the 2022 film by Peter Putz. He described himself as someone who lived solely for art and said he drew something every day, often small sketches made only for himself.

Reimo Wukounig died on the evening of Wednesday 21 October 2026, aged 83. German Wikipedia gives the place of death as Vienna, where he had lived for many years. His death was reported on 22 October by ORF Carinthia, the Kleine Zeitung, the Salzburger Nachrichten and the Kronen Zeitung. The cause of death has not been made public, and no funeral details had been announced at the time of writing.

ORF Carinthia recalled him as an artist who was brutally honest and uncomfortable, who never shied away from saying what he thought, and whose art was correspondingly uncompromising and demanding.

Wukounig is remembered as one of the most uncompromising Carinthian artists of his generation, whose drawings, paintings and installations turned the experience of institutional abuse into a lifelong artistic self-examination. His Zögling cycle, first shown at the 1976 Venice Biennale, is regarded as a central part of that work. His honours included the Vienna city prize for painting and graphic art (1988), the Theodor Körner Prize, the Grand Culture Prize of Carinthia (2001), the Grand Decoration of Honour of the State of Carinthia (2023) and a star on the Walk of Fame on the lake promenade of the Klopeiner See (2024).