Outstanding architecture on the campus of the University of Graz
PERSPECTIVA PRACTICA
University Library
In PERSPECTIVA PRACTICA, her largest work to date in terms of surface area, the artist Anna Artaker transfers a Renaissance copperplate engraving, enlarged two hundred and twenty times, to the 500 square metre surface of the sensational new university library building, modernizing it and creating a link between centuries-old book knowledge and the modern requirements of library operations. The starting point and template for her work is an illustration from the textbook by the French Renaissance scholar Jean Du Breuil from 1642 entitled PERSPECTIVA PRACTICA. Artaker thus refers to the state of knowledge at the time the University of Graz was founded in 1585.
Auditorium
Main Building, Universitätsplatz 3
The Aula is located on the second floor at the front of the main building and, with its statue of Emperor Franz Joseph I, is the heart of the university. The Emperor himself inaugurated the main building in 1895. The prestigious ballroom, decorated in white and gold, is used for graduations and doctorates as well as conferences and events. The auditorium has around 400 seats.
In addition to the auditorium paintings, the Rector's Gallery and the busts of famous personalities, another work of art in the auditorium is worthy of note: on the left in the arcade is a marble memorial plaque for the historian Franz Krones, Ritter von Marchland (1835-1902), with a portrait medallion (artist: Georg Winkler, 1906). Among other things, Krones was Rector of the University of Graz for a period (1876/77) and wrote the commemorative publication for the 300th anniversary of the university (1886). His preferred areas of research were in the field of Austrian and Styrian history.
