Arik Brauer

Arik Brauer (1929-2021)

Arik Brauer was an Austrian painter, printmaker, poet, dancer, and singer-songwriter. Brauer, born to Jewish emigrants, grew up in Vienna under the Nazi regime. Following World War II, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, and soon began traveling. In 1957, he traveled to Israel and met his wife, where the two began singing as a duo. Brauer was known as a universalkunstler (all-around artist). Ernst Fuchs, another Austrian artist, described Brauer as “a mystic, a romantic whose realm of experience grew through approaching experiences of nature.” Brauer was the co-founder of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism. He was also an architect and designed buildings in Austria and Israel throughout the 1990s. Brauer was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art (2002), the Amadeus Austrian Music Award (2015), and the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria (2018).