Cross of Honor of the Republic for the multiple artist

His tools are brushes, paints and canvas, but Leopold Kogler still likes to use his plane and saw as a hobbyist. The leading artist and education director in the province of Lower Austria never forgot his beginnings as a carpenter’s apprentice and kept his groundedness even after completing his two doctorates at the University of Vienna. Now the Republic of Austria has crowned the work of the Mostviertler with one of its highest awards. Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner presented Kogler in Lower Austria. Landhaus the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art.

First doctorate in 1983

The award for the 70-year-old from St. Peter is not a sign of old age, Kogler has earned his laurels with a lot of diligence and zeal for art. After completing his carpentry apprenticeship, Kogler, who worked as a technical draftsman and interior designer, went to the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and studied with Oswald Oberhuber, Wander Bertoni and Bazon Brock. After studying art history, journalism and social history, Kogler received his doctorate in philosophy in 1983, which he followed with the same academic degree in social and economic sciences.

The Mostviertler conquered the art market and well-known museums and collections with his own paintings. As head of the district gallery in Weistrach, he promoted the careers of young artists in the state. Kogler is a member of the Künstlerhaus Wien and the Oberösterreichische Kunstverein, and he worked as a teacher at the summer academies in Weyer and Steyr.

Director at BG Wieselburg

As a specialist inspector for art education at the state school board, he raised drawing lessons in school classes to a new artistic and personality-building level. In the meantime, from 2003, Kogler was director of the federal high school in Wieselburg.

“As an artist and exhibition curator, he has always stood up for the concerns of the artists with the highest level of commitment,” said the laudatory speech.