Aloys Wach

Who was Aloys Wach?

Aloys Wach or Aloys Ludwig Wachelmayr was an Austrian expressionist painter and graphic artist. He was born in Lambach, Upper Austria and died in Braunau, Upper Austria. While his birth places him close to the generation that laid the foundations of modern art and especially expressionism, his life as an artist, however, began after cubism, futurism and the expressionists of the Der Blaue Reiter and Die Brücke movements had initiated a time of great changes. In his later life, Wach abandoned his artistic roots and distanced himself from his early expressionist works by turning to religious imagery. Today, however, those early works are seen as his greatest accomplishments.

Wach decided to become an artist early on in his life, and already arrived in Vienna at the young age of 17, but initially suffered a series of setbacks. He was rejected as a student by the Academy in Munich and attempted unsuccessfully to study art in Vienna. He received formal education at the Knirr-Sailer painting school in Munich as well as, in 1913, at Académie Colarossi in Paris. He finished his studies with Heinrich Altherr in Stuttgart.

In 1912, he briefly moved to Berlin.