Ivo SALIGER

Ivo Saliger was born on October 21, 1894 in Königsberg-Wagstadt, Moravia, and died on January 14, 1987 in Vienna. He was an Austrian painter and etcher who occasionally used the pseudonym Ovid Seralgi.

Saliger discovered his passion for art in his youth. After his family moved to Olomouc, he received his first painting lessons and later attended grammar schools in Olomouc and Vienna. From 1908, Vienna was his permanent residence. There he began his studies at the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt under Ludwig Michalek and continued from 1912 to 1917 at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Rudolf Jettmar and Ferdinand Schmutzer. As early as 1913, Saliger presented his work at various exhibitions, including the Vienna Künstlerhaus.

After completing his studies, Saliger worked briefly as Michalek’s assistant at the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt. He later lived as a freelance artist in Vienna. In 1930, he continued his studies at the “Academie moderne” in Paris in order to perfect his oil painting and the depiction of the female nude. His works were highly regarded in Vienna as well as in Paris and Graz, and in 1933 he was awarded the medal of the city of Graz for his painting “Morgenbad”.

Saliger joined the NSDAP illegally in 1936 and became a regular member in 1938. His paintings were very popular with the National Socialists and were shown at the Great German Art Exhibitions between 1937 and 1944.

Little is known about Saliger’s artistic work after 1945. He died in 1987 in Vienna or possibly in Bad Goisern and was buried in the Hernals cemetery.

Saliger was known for his depictions of female nudes and group pictures as well as landscapes and portraits. Some of his early works show medical themes, possibly influenced by his sister’s leukemia. Later, he often took up scenes from Greco-Roman mythology, incorporating modern elements, which gave his works a disconcerting effect. However, his painting style became powerless and his color palette comparatively dull when he bowed to the aesthetic norms of Nazi art policy and ignored the achievements of modernism.