Helmuth Gräff

Helmuth Gräff (born 1958 in Gars am Kamp) is an Austrian painter, draughtsman and poet. His painting draws on the legacy of Vincent van Gogh and can also be seen as a forerunner of, or a link to, the Neue Wilde. Born on 12 April 1958, he was the youngest son of a family with a long record of political and religious free thought.

He began drawing as a boy and produced thousands of works. He studied at the Wiener Kunstschule under Fritz Martinz and, between 1979 and 1983, at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, first with Gustav Hessing and later in the painting masterclass of Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Since 1989 he has worked independently as a painter, draughtsman and poet. His themes combine spiritual and religious compositions with landscapes from places such as Italy, France, Florida and Bali.

A sports accident in 1995, which fractured three thoracic vertebrae, left him with persistent back pain that increasingly affected his work. He exhibited at the Palais Palffy, the Palais Todesco and the Museum of Young Art in Vienna, as well as at the Leopold Museum, which holds works from the collection of Rudolf Leopold. His works have been auctioned at Dorotheum and Auktionshaus Im Kinsky.