Hans Piffrader Biography
Hans Piffrader (Chiusa, 5 August 1888 – Bolzano, 25 November 1950) was a South Tyrolean sculptor. He was born in Chiusa, in the Isarco Valley, in what is now South Tyrol. The family was part of a cultural elite and probably the acquaintances with artists influenced the subsequent career of the young Hans, who was also inclined towards artistic activities. He attended lower secondary schools in his native town and subsequently the Franciscan high school in Bolzano. In 1906 he was enrolled at the higher technical institute in Innsbruck, in the modeling and artistic drawing sector. His attendance at the Academy in Vienna - in 1911 - was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War, in which he served as an officer, as a lieutenant in the Tiroler Kaiserjäger. In 1918, for health reasons, he was discharged, thus being able to resume his interrupted artistic studies in Vienna. Vienna in that period was still the cultural and educational epicenter of many artists who later became famous, such as Egon Schiele and it was there that he met Josef Thorak, who became his friend and later one of the most celebrated artists of the regime during National Socialism in Germany. In 1924 Piffrader returned home to Chiusa, continuing his activity as a designer and sculptor, but often traveling to Europe for his professional development and for exhibitions in which he exhibited his works: Florence, Paris, Berlin. A collective exhibition that stopped in various cities in the German area also saw his works exhibited, together with those of other Tyrolean artists, including Albin Egger-Lienz, the Albert Stolz brothers, Ignaz Gabloner, Hugo Atzwanger. In Italy, of which the portion of Tyrol south of Brenner had been part of since 1919 under the name of Alto Adige, the fascist regime had now established itself and the celebratory intent of its architectural works needed adequate artistic values, especially in the field of sculpture and painting. In this period, a large collective exhibition event was organized locally based in Bolzano, called the "Biennale della Venezia Tridentina", which provided the state of the art at a local level. It is starting from this general situation that in 1938, when popular consensus for the regime and the Duce was at its peak, we arrived at an exhibition set up in the premises of the just finished Cesare Battisti Technical Commercial Institute, in via Cadorna in Bolzano.
