Oddball and Universal Artist

“A genius is at work here — and no one takes notice,” that is how, tongue-in-cheek, Padhi Frieberger characterized his art. He consistently refused to play by the rules of the art market or take part in its busyness. Throughout his life, he was considered a “nonconformist” and an “outsider in Austria’s art scene.” Working with all imaginable media and forms of expression, Frieberger was an artist through and through, but he could not stand being labeled a “Lebenskünstler,” i.e., one whose “life is his art,” even if the hermit lifestyle he led on Hagenberg Castle fits this cliché and his art and life merged into a “Padhiland.” Art is not about what one does, but how one does it, Frieberger said, not about creating art, but living it. Krems or Vienna? Frieberger’s place of birth is still an enigma, as so many other things in his life and work.

Padhi Frieberger, Padhi F., 1975
Colour Photography Marcel Houf
© State of Lower Austria, Lower Austrian State Collections
Photo: Peter Böttcher