Artist Franz Grabmeier in portrait

Franz Grabmeier grew up in Pfaffenberg near Obervillach in Carinthia as a mountain farmer, and continued the Spartan life of his childhood as an artist. After attending a teacher training college, Grabmeier initially taught mathematics and descriptive geometry before a teacher exchange at the age of 27 gave him the opportunity to go from Carinthia to Vienna to study painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, and again a few years later. Later, he finally decided on the life of an artist. After receiving his degree from Herbert Boeckel, he immediately settled in Waldviertel to work in one of the empty wings of Rosenau Castle, in complete isolation. Without electricity or running water. An originality that Grabmeier later retained when he moved to an old farmhouse near Zwettl.

While fellow Viennese action artists such as Otto Mühl, Günther Bross and Hermann Nitsch began their careers in Vienna, Grabmeier withdrew from the urban climate of the big city to the countryside in order to paint landscapes. To do this, he studied and observed nature almost fanatically: whether it was the rocks in the camp, roots, sand pits, or hay bales.