Zens Herwig – Self-Portrait 3

He was born in 1943 in Himburg near Vienna. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in the class of Prof. Elsner. During his studies, he also attended O. Kokoschka’s school. He acquired education in graphic techniques. His exhibition activity started in 1966. Since then and until today, the author has organized exhibitions presenting his distinctive work worldwide (Los Angeles, New York, London, Tokyo, Madrid, Berlin, Paris). He is the author of the large “Goya project” at the Museum of Modern Art in Bilbao. He has received numerous awards granted by Vienna and Austria for his contribution to culture. The author created thousands of graphics, drawings, oil paintings, and interpretations of the lives of F. Schubert and F. de Goya. He is professor emeritus at the Vienna Academy. His work is characterized by two obsessions – death and Goya, whom he also interprets through a dissertation on his work. In 1977, he began recording events from his life on copper plates. This “Graphic Diary,” now over 55 meters long, deals with banal themes in a humorous and expressive way. The diary is a kind of attempt to overcome death, and Zens worked on it until his death. For Zens, painting is the meaning of existence; he paints to live.