Matejka-Felden, Gerda |
| PAINTER, TEACHER (AUSTRIA) |
|
BORN 29 Apr 1901, Dehlingen, Bas-Rhin - DIED 27 Dec 1984, Wien GRAVE LOCATION Wien: Zentralfriedhof, Simmeringer Hauptstraße 234, Simmering (Gruppe 40, Nummer 123) |
|
Gerda Matejka was the daughter of the politician and theologist Emil Felden. She received private drawing lessons and attended the Kunstgewerbeschule in Bremen from 1914 onwards. From 1919 to 1924 she studied at the Academy of Graphical Arts in Leipzig. In 1924 she settled in Vienna and the she married the politician Viktor Matejka. In 1938 her husband was arrested and impriosoned in Dachau. Gerda was banned from her occupation by the nazis. Her father sent her money to live and in 1943 she was able to visit her husband in Dachau and he was released in 1944. After the war she obtained a teaching position at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna. She became an associate professor in 1947. In 1948 she divorced her husband but they were still in contact afterwards. She founded the Künstlerische Volkshochschule project and she almost lost her job at the Academy because of it, but eventually she became a full professor in 1959. She won several Austrian prizez and her work was internationally known as well. She died in 1984 in Vienna. |
| Images |
 The grave of Gerda Matejka-Felden at the Zentralfriedhof, Vienna. Picture by Androom (23 Aug 2009) |
