Arthur Roessler
{{Short description|Austrian art critic}}
Arthur Roessler, also spelled Rössler, (20 February 1877 – 20 July 1950) was an Austrian art critic, art historian and essayist.
Biography
Roessler was born in to the family of a chemist and engineer. He studied philosophy, literature and art history at the University of Vienna under Franz Wickhoff, but did not defend his doctoral thesis. He travelled around Europe and settled in Munich, where he worked as a journalist for the Münchner Zeitung.{{Cite web |title=dasrotewien.at |url=https://www.dasrotewien.at/seite/roessler-arthur |access-date=2024-07-12 |website=www.dasrotewien.at}}
Roessler's first major essay, Die Stimmung der Gotik, was published in 1903. Two years later, he published a new essay, about the Dachau artists' colony (Künstlergruppe Neu-Dachau) and Adolf Hölzel, a pioneer of modernism.{{Cite web |title=Arthur Roessler |url=https://www.literaturportal-bayern.de/nachlaesse?task=lpbestate.default&id=1060 |access-date=2024-07-12 |website=www.literaturportal-bayern.de |language=de-de}} Thanks to the latter, he settled in Vienna and took over the management of the Miethke gallery. He continued to promote many young modernist artists through numerous collaborations with art magazines. His friendship with Victor Adler led him to write for the social-democratic newspaper Arbeiter-Zeitung, in whose columns he was the first to recognise and defend Egon Schiele which led the two men to become close friends. Schiele left several portraits of Roessler.
Between the two wars, Roessler became vice-president of the Wiener Werkstätte, and director of the Österreichische Werkbund (ÖWB).{{Cite web |last=kniefacz |first=katharina |date=2017-07-25 |title=Arthur Roessler |url=https://geschichte.univie.ac.at/en/persons/arthur-roessler |access-date=2024-07-12 |website=650 plus |language=en}}
In 1937, he was awarded the title of professor by government of Austria. After Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, Roessler a supporter of Austrian modernism and social democracy, came under scrutiny from the new regime and was accused of being a "Mischling" under the Nazi racial laws which forbade him to work.{{Cite book |last1=Brandow-Faller |first1=Megan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0xh9EAAAQBAJ&dq=arthur+roessler+nazi&pg=PT58 |title=Erasures and Eradications in Modern Viennese Art, Architecture and Design |last2=Morowitz |first2=Laura |date=2022-09-23 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-64606-1 |language=en}} Roessler and his wife Ida remained in Vienna during the Second World War and after the war ended he continued his work as a freelance writer and critic.{{Cite web |title=Biographie des Monats Februar 2017 |url=http://www.oeaw.ac.at/acdh/oebl/biographien-des-monats/2017/februar |access-date=2024-07-12 |website=www.oeaw.ac.at}}
Arthur Roessler died on July 20, 1955, in Vienna; his grave is in the Vienna Central Cemetery.
References
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Category:Austrian art historians
Category:Austrian art collectors
Category:20th-century Austrian male writers