Artist unknown
In Memoriam Hanns Koren (2002)
Photo: steirischer herbst / Dietmar Reinbacher
It is a typically Styrian paradox that Hanns Koren (1906–1985), a Catholic patriot and conservative politician, became the most influential promoter—and often even founder—of several militantly modernist, internationally oriented initiatives in a grim postwar Graz (including the trigon biennial in 1963 and steirischer herbst in 1968). His background and life project as a Volkskunde (folkloristics or ethnology) specialist meant the local, semirural dress code expressed the same dignity and moral ground as the best works of high art for him.
The portrait of Koren shown here, brought to the festival’s attention by Folk Life Museum curator Birgit Johler, shows his “popular” side. The painting comes from the Babenbergerhof, a uniquely traditional local pub, and was made for the well-known “Anni-Wirtin” (innkeeper Anna Maria Zimmermann) as a payment for unpaid bills by an artist whose name history has not retained. The portrait normally “lives” in the pub’s corridor. Koren enjoyed socializing at the Babenbergerhof and inspired Anni to read and recite the patriotic regional poet Hans Kloepfer (1867–1944)—infamous, alas, for his Nazi connections.
Acrylic on canvas, 104 × 125 cm
Courtesy of Anna Maria Zimmermann