Rudolf Hausner (born on December 4, 1914 in Vienna, died on February 25, 1995 in Mödling/Lower Austria) was an Austrian painter, graphic artist and important representative of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism.
His first artistic phase was influenced by Impressionism and Expressionism. In 1946, Rudolf Hausner founded a surrealist group in the Austrian Art Club together with Edgar Jené, Helmut Leherb, Ernst Fuchs, Wolfgang Hutter and Fritz Janschka. Anton Lehmden and Arik Brauer later joined this loose artist association. The first exhibition in the Vienna Konzerthaus followed.
In 1956, Hausner finished his painting 'Odysseus's Ark' after six years of work. In 1957, Hausner created his first Adam painting, which he varied again and again. He tried to depict the equal existence of conscious and unconscious processes and thereby came into conflict with the popular surrealist orthography of other artists and art critics.
In 1959, Rudolf Hausner took part in the documenta II in Kassel. In the same year, the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism was founded with Rudolf Hausner. Instead of being classified as Surrealism, the term Fantastic Realism developed by Johann Muschik became the norm for Rudolf Hausner's work. In the same year, Rudolf Hausner exhibited for the first time in a group exhibition at the Austrian Gallery Belvedere in Vienna. Numerous international exhibitions followed. Rudolf Hausner also gave lectures and accepted guest lectureships in Hamburg and Tokyo.
From 1966, Hausner was a university professor in Hamburg and from 1968 a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. A special feature of his painting technique is the use of translucent ("glazing") resin oil paints in more than 10 layers on top of each other over underpaintings of acrylic paints, which give the color a particularly luminous depth. He also developed methods to create flawless transitions in pure oil painting without using an airbrush.
He published articles and books on his work and on art history. He also designed stamps for the Austrian Post and the United Nations Postal Administration.
