Biography
The compulsive need for artistic creation has ruled Hermann Polz since childhood, sometimes to an uncontrollable extent. Attempted escapes led him through quite a few professional detours and wrong ways. However, during other occupations he was always driven back to the drawing table and easel. While studying Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Vienna (doctoral dissertation on: “Psychoanalysis in Modern Art”), he attended evening courses in figure drawing with Herbert Böckl at the Academy of Art. After finishing his degree, he participated in stage set design while working as a dramatic producer at the Scala Theater in Vienna. Later, as an editor for a publishing company he also designed book covers and as a theater critic was also creative as an illustrator and caricaturist. Most of his career was spent as editor in chief for an Austrian daily where he made a significant contribution to the formation of the political landscape in Austria. After having suffered the devastating consequences of fascism in Europe during the WWII, Mr. Polz devoted his career to actively fighting against even the hint of fascist ideology. The indelible mark of the wartime experience also manifests itself in many of his paintings.
In the second half of his life, Mr. Polz evolved into an alter Wilder (old wild one), a somewhat suspicious species because the aggressive impetus of the junger Wilde (young wild one) was reinvigorated by an array of experiences over the course of many years while not yet being diminished by age. Mr. Polz is interested in depicting the human being not without irony but in all of its inadequacies and defeats – a state more unequivocally revealing than any success or victory.
Artistic fear of publicity led to the materialization of a number of solo and group shows, including in Austria, Germany, Sweden and the United States.
Hermann Polz lives and works in Vienna, Austria.