Matthias Laurenz Gräff

Matthias Laurenz Gräff and Karl von Habsburg - head of the Habsburg-Lorraine family, the former Roman-German and Austrian imperial families - in front of Graeff's coat of arms[8] (2022)

Matthias Laurenz Gräff was born into an Austrian family of several politics and artists. He is the child of Helmuth Gräff, an academic painter, and Martina Maria Gräff (née Gach), art professor, daughter of the architect Richard Gach and granddaughter of the chemist Richard Henke. His paternal ancestors were politically active and religious free thinkers.[8] In 2013 Gräff became a co-founder and chairman of the worldwide Graeff-family association (Familienverband Gräff-Graeff e.V.), and in the following year he organized the worldwide family reunion "530 Jahre Graeff" at the ancient Von Graben castle Kornberg, Styria.[5]

"Matthias Laurenz Gräff in holländischer Tracht"[8] (Matthias Laurenz Gräff in traditional dutch costume), chairman of the Gräff-Graeff family association as sort of an officiel painting by Helmuth Gräff (2007)

Artist meeting with Don Airey of Deep Purple. Matthias Laurenz Gräff, Don Airey and Georgia Kazantzidu

At the age of 17 Matthias Laurenz Gräff began to study illustration and graphic at the private New Design University St. Pölten,[9] and in the following years he took part at the summer academy of Geras of Bernhard Hollemann[10] and Arthur Redhead. From 2002 to 2008 he studied at Wolfgang Herzig's masterclass of painting at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.[11] In 2010, at the 64th annual fair of St Pöltens Künstlerbund (Art union), he received the "Adolf Peschek Preis" (Adolf Peschek Public Award) in the Museum of the City of St. Pölten.[12] Two years later Gräff created the painting for the vine etiquette of the Red Cross in Lower Austria.[13] In 2013 he and his girlfriend Georgia Kazantzidu organized a concert of the Mojo Blues Band in his own hometown, Gars am Kamp.[14] In the same year, upon the occasion of the celebration of the sister city Gars am Inn in Germany he created the officiel twin city painting.[15][16]

In 2014, Gräff received from the mayor's bureau of Gars am Kamp a contract to create three paintings for the vine etiquettes "Garser Wein 2014".[17][18] A local businessman boycott the publishing of the etiquettes about the illustration of a half naked woman, and this led to a little media scandal in Austria.[19][20][21] Two years later, Gräff again received from the mayor's bureau of Gars am Kamp a contract to create three paintings for the vine etiquettes "Garser Wein 2016" (10 years Garser Wein).[22][23] In 2015 and 2017, Gräff organized artist meetings with Nick Simper[24] and Don Airey,[25] musicians of Deep Purple in Vienna. In the same year together with Roger Glover he take part at "50 Years Deep Purple. Art and History" at Cologne.[26] In 2017 he organized a charity campaign in favor of Polyneuropathy at WUK Vienna.[27] In 2018 he gave an interview and a presentation about his work and life to Irene Gavala at the Greek radio station Poets radio.[28] Gräff's various painting themes are also used internationally, for example in an article by Asle Toje, a member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.[29]

Elisabeth Voggeneder, Austrian curator and art historian:

• In Matthias Laurenz Gräff's paintings one finds the expression of Baroque elements. With the early age of 29 he has a huge extensive and varied Oeuvre. In observing his works one thinks of his paragons as Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne and Claude Monet. In his still life paintings one can realize that he even rises above Cézanne in his target and design vocabulary. Gräff interprets this traditional theme in a new way and carries it in a new era.[30]

Sabrina Redhead, art curator of the Red Bull "project spielberg":

• In Gräff's artworks you can obviously realize the influence of the Austrian art history especially the classical modern Art. His style is distinctive and significant. He achieves combination of traditional and modern in such a way that has not been seen before. He very often uses "pure" colours; this reminds us of Henri Matisse. He tends to be enormously dynamic, he generates moods and every view of his works allows new points of view and experiences. Although the variety of his perspective underlies Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh, his works are unique and peerless.[31]

Georg Vetter, Matthias Laurenz Gräff, Georgia Kazantzidu, Karin Kneissl and Michael Breisky (Dialog im Kamptal, 2020)

Matthias Laurenz Gräff as NEOS candidate and NEOS party leader Beate Meinl-Reisinger in 2023

Matthias Laurenz Gräff has been working on contemporary paintings of political and social criticism since 2015. These are published by international books, magazines and blogs.[32] Important topics are anti-fascism, socialism, anti-nationalist, pro-European,[33] liberalism and tradition. Gräff deals with national and global issues and personalities. He also deals with socio-political issues and critical processes in Austrian society and politics. The Erich Maria Remarque-Friedenszentrum (University of Osnabrück) wrote about Gräff: He consistently represents humanistic, anti-nationalist and pro-European positions both in his art and in various exchange and discussion programs organized by him.[33]

In relation of the 2019 European Parliament election, Gräff created a pro-European painting in collaboration with the Austrian party NEOS.[34]

In 2019 Matthias Laurenz Gräff and Georgia Kazantzidu created the non-partisan platform Dialog im Kamptal (Dialogue in Kamptal) as a private initiative for political communication and participation in his art studio. The events aim to inform, exchange and dialogue on relevant political, diplomatic and social issues. Erhard Busek, Wolfgang Brandstetter, Karin Kneissl, Hannes Swoboda, Emil Brix, Wolfgang Petritsch, Karl von Habsburg among other, took part in the events.[35][36]

Matthias Laurenz Gräff has been politically active as a community representative in Gars am Kamp for the liberal NEOS party since 2022.[6] He is also a candidate for the Lower Austrian state elections in 2023,[37] a candidate for the Waldviertel region[38] and as a candidate for the Horn district.[39][40][41]