Wall mosaics and reliefs – BG/BRG St.Pölten


POST-WAR ART AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE – A SUCCESSFUL MARRIAGE

Visitors can see this successful marriage for themselves in the newly refurbished secondary school at Josefstrasse in St. Pölten. Leopold Schmid (1901–1989) created a total of six pieces of wall art on the first and second floors of the school building between 1954 and 1955: two wall mosaics in the stairway and four reliefs carved into sandstone walls.

These works were restored in the course of the general refurbishment of the school building. The mosaics were cleaned and carefully reinserted into the new design. The process was somewhat more complicated in the case of the sandstone reliefs, which were looking the worse for wear after having survived years of day-to-day school life and several smaller renovations in the building. The restorers filled up holes and removed significant build-ups of dirt. In addition, the two doors that were no longer functional after the refurbishment were closed up with exposed concrete and fitted with frames to suit the new overall look. These walls now add a timeless, elegant element to the modern architecture.  

Leopold Schmid was a painter, sculptor, graphic artist and ceramicist. His legacy is extremely diverse and includes landscape paintings, murals, stone and glass mosaics, sgraffiti and ceramic works.

Schmid was a member of the Künstlerhaus, from which he was excluded after being banned from working by the Nazi government in 1940–41. In 1956 he became the association’s honorary president. He was the recipient of numerous accolades, including the Grand Austrian State Prize, and was awarded a professorship in 1952.