Austrian sculptor Franz Xaver Ölzant dies

Austrian sculptor Franz Xaver Ölzant, regarded as one of the country’s most significant sculptors, has died, ORF reported. He was closely connected to the Waldviertel region, where his sensitivity to natural forms helped shape the art scene in Lower Austria.

Born in 1934 in Oberzeiring, Styria, Ölzant studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna before settling in Pfaffenschlag near Waidhofen an der Thaya. The Waldviertel became a key source of inspiration for his work, which often drew on the region’s erratic boulders and brought landscape and sculpture together.

One example is “Basilika,” a sculpture ensemble created near Waidhofen an der Thaya in 1994. Ölzant used erratic boulders to form a monumental, church-like landscape of ruins.

Lower Austrian Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner praised Ölzant’s work as a valuable cultural legacy that reached beyond the state. Vienna and the states of Styria and Lower Austria gave him major honours, including Lower Austria’s 2005 award for visual art.